Think Geek FTW!

Think Geek always has clever copy and clever April Fool’s jokes. I think part of the reason is that some of their real products are so off the wall that their imaginary products don’t seem unfathomable.

This year’s joke was pretty extensive, featuring a home page almost entirely devoid of real products, and instead filled with jokes. I even got their newsletter in my inbox featuring these same products. And even knowing their tendency to have some fun, I still clicked through — “Spazztroids Caffeinated Cereal? I’ve got to get me some of those!”

Some other winners: Betamax to HD DVD converter, a caffeine patch, a USB pregnancy test, USB sun lamp, USB Foreman Grill, Pii Pii brothers Wii game. Check out their web site while the prank pages up!

Real life products available at ThinkGeek.com

Dash Express: Next Generation GPS Navigation

If you’re a fan of GPS navigation systems, this is the most compelling reason to upgrade that I’ve yet seen; if you’ve been on the fence about whether to try one on, this just might push you over the edge.

Dash Express is a navigation system with built-in WiFi, better routing capabilities, traffic data, and a boatload of minor feature improvements, combined with an online control panel to expand your reach outside of the car.

The old way to navigate: at home, find the address of where you want to visit, write it down on a sticky pad, and head out to your car. Punch in that address and off you go. If they’re closed, you’re out of luck. Hit a bad patch of traffic, too bad.

Dash Express navigation: hop in your car, search Yahoo! Local for a destination, and get routed. Scan ahead for any traffic backups and reroute as needed. Change your mind as needed. Alert your friends (who are also Dash users) of where you’re heading to, or get updates in your unit of locations sent to you by your friends. Or rewind to the beginning. Find your destination address on your home PC, right-click it in your web browser, then select “Send 2 Car.” When you fire up Dash, the address will be waiting for you.

Dash is to standard GPS navigation systems what Google Maps was to MapQuest. One of things I always thought was “broken” in my nav system is the routing capabilities. To reroute, I’d have to pull up the turn by turn directions, and delete some of the waypoints, hoping I deleted the correct ones to force a reroute. Dash displays multiple routes and lets you choose from them. The UI has some significant improvements as well — at a glance it just looks more organized and intuitive.

Dash isn’t cheap at $399, but it sure is pretty! And maybe you can make up for some of that cost with one of Dash’s built-in features: find the cheapest gas prioces in town, and get routed there. Plus, if it ever gets stolen, you can remotely disable it so the thieves can’t enjoy your new toy.

Find it at Amazon

$6400 Diamond Studded Earphones

Jabroni, noun: “A loser, poser, lame-ass.”

Smackdown, noun: “1) A contraction of two words (”smack” and “down”) popularized by WWE wrestler-turned-actor The Rock that refers to the inflicting of a beatdown of epic proportions upon “jabronis” and “candyasses.” Sometimes used in a bastardized form of Elizabethan English.

You, too can get your lame iPod headphones, consisting of 204 diamonds (1.65 carats) set in 18 karat gold.

iDiamond ear will be available at leading jewelery stores worldwide this month. Detailed specs

Making Backup Copies of DVD’s

Someone asked me about making DVD backups the other day, so I thought I’d share how to go about this here.

The biggest hurdles to overcome when making backups of commercial DVD’s are the file size when copied, the encryption on the disc, and the legality of doing so.

I’m not going to get into the legal implications of this here, except to say that copying commercial discs is not allowed, and it’s ridiculous that I can’t copy DVD’s I own as backups. For example, if I were the copying sort, making backups of my son’s DVD’s would be a great application of this sort of thing. They could theoretically get all scratched and gummed up because his grubby little two-year old paws would eventually end up all over them. In a situation like that, I’d much rather use a throwaway DVD-R. That could hypothetically save me considerable expense, and after all, I do own these discs (in this purely hypothetical example).

My father-in-law, who is not a U.S. resident, uses Slysoft AnyDVD for his backups. He says that the program is fast, but the backups tend to be of poor quality, presumably because of the file size issue. If I were to compare one of my hypothetical backups with his backups, I bet it would be of much higher quality, because the software that I would choose if I were the backing up sort would handle compression.

So if I were to choose ripping software, I would choose something like the freeware DVD Shrink, current version 3.2.0.15. DVD Shrink is able to remove encryption, and then compress the file to disc so that it can subsequently be burned onto a single DVD-R. It also has pretty good reauthoring features, so I could choose to leave off the foreign language track or bonus features if I were so inclined.

DVD Shrink’s official web site is here, but software can’t be downloaded from it. Rather, there is a forum that links to the various download locations. If I were to download DVD Shrink, I would make sure that I downloaded it from one of the locations referenced in that forum, and nowhere else. If I were to do it, of course.

A good quick start tutorial can be found, and more in-depth task-based tutorials are available.

Once this hypothetical file were on my PC, I would then go about burning it to a DVD. A very capable program that could be used to burn these types of files is the free ImgBurn software, luckily available fro download directly from their site. The current version is 2.4.0.

If I were to go about making backup copies, these are the programs I would use. They are very capable and make high-quality backups. But due to the decryption, compression, and drive speeds, they would take some time to copy a full DVD, perhaps along the lines of 30 minutes to rip and 30 minutes to burn and verify. Or so I would reasonably expect.

In all seriousness, while I do think it’s ridiculous that I can’t backup movies I own for my own personal use, I am strongly opposed to intellectual property theft of any kind. I would never consider it, and I discourage everyone I know from doing it. Fair use on the other hand is. . .well, fair.

Modu: Genuinely interesting and slick mobile phone / gadget

Modu is a tiny, credit card-sized, powerful mobile phone. Slip the modu into one of many very well-designed “jackets” to give it a new look and new functionality. These modular components remind me of the concept behind Buglabs, but whereas Buglabs had more geek appeal, with open source hardware and software, modu has much more chic appeal. These things look slick.

When is a phone not a phone? When it has “mates,” which morph the modu into various consumer electronic devices. All modu jackets are universally interchangeable, allowing you to swap modu jackets at any time, and according to the web site, with anyone. It also sounds as if some of these modu’s will be artist-branded and come pre-loaded with applications and music. I couldn’t find any price estimates to speak of, but product is supposed to ship at the end of 2008.

Photos can’t do the concept justice. Check out the Flash intro to see how these work.

Movie rental death match: Blockbuster Online vs. Netflix

I’m a huge fan of online movie rentals. It wasn’t many years ago that finding a good selection of DVD’s at a rental store was difficult. Once they were commonly available at stores, they were commonly unavailable by demand. Netflix enters the scene with their online rental service. Never go to the video store again, never wait in the weekend lines, get your movies fast. Of course, I wasn’t ready to give up that local access to movies, so I didn’t venture into a subscription until Blockbuster Online was released.

I was reasonably happy with Blockbuster for well over a year, but then made the move to Netflix for comparison purposes. Then back to Blockbuster when the Total Access package came out (although it wasn’t branded as that at the time). Recently I decided to give the two a head-to-head comparison in a movie rental death match. I’ve used both services when they were immature and now again when they’ve matured and responded to competition.

[Read more]

I bricked my TiVo (TiVo sucks)

I’ve been a TiVo user for quite some years now, starting with the Series 1 and moving to a Series 2. To me, it’s just an appliance. I turn the TV on, it works. I don’t feel compelled to upgrade to any new version or even a networked version. A year ago, I turned the onscreen guide subscription off. I was just watching too much TV. Simple enough. I also unplugged the TiVo from the home phone line.

Last month, that line was plugged back in, and the next day I was treated with a slick new TiVo UI, obviously downloaded overnight. And, the killer feature: my TiVo can no longer be used to record TV. My digital video recorder no longer records digital video. How absurd is that? After doing some research, I learned that this is common (and commonly known) in newer Series 2 and later TiVos. And I just don’t get it.

I paid for the box — the recorder itself. I didn’t get a discount, and I never agreed to purchase the onscreen guide in perpetuity. In a fair world, it seems that if the hardware is capable of recording, and I paid for the hardware, I should be permitted to record. But TiVo feels that even though I paid for the hardware, the price of admission must also include the guide subscription.

What perplexes me the most is that TiVo has always been close with their customer base. Contrast that to wireless carriers. I can’t think of any more adversial customer relationship that the average person has with any of their providers. Yet, even wireless carriers give you a free phone (or a subsidy) in exchange for purchasing their service. You’re not required to purchase a phone outright, and then also pay the carrier charges. What’s the rationale behind TiVo bricking a box I paid for just because I no longer want to use their service?

I was eyeing up a Series 3 to go along with a new TV, but I argue with my wallet, and this bricked TiVo is my last. I’m jumping ship. But where to go? My cable operator? Windows Media Center? Who cares, as long as it’s not TiVo.

All I want to do is punch that fat television and rip his damn antennae off. His stupid grin openly mocks me. Bastard.

All I Want for Christmas: BUG, from Bug Labs

This is one of the more interesting products I’ve seen in a while, and although it doesn’t look
like it’s going to be shipping in 2007, this is high on my wish list for 2008.

Bug Labs has created open source hardware modules that can be snapped together like Legos to create a mobile device. You start out with the well-equipped BUGbase, with built-in Wifi, USB, and ethernet. BUGbase has four connectors used for snapping on the open source hardware modules. Each module or combination of modules you snap on enables additional device capabilities. Current and upcoming modules include:

• Camera / videocamera
• GPS
• touch screen
• motion sensor / accelerometer
• qwerty keyboard
• speaker and jacks

Then comes the software, also open source and community-developed with Bug’s own SDK. It looks like there are a handful of applications out there currently, with most being of the test variety, but it doesn’t take long for these kinds of plug-ins to gather momentum.

Sure, these things look like bricks, but you can’t beat the gadget appeal.

Check them out at http://www.buglabs.net/.

Lego-inspired Products via the Stylehive

If you’re a fan of Legos, you’ll want to see this stylehive post on five Lego-inspired products, including a coaster set, ice cube trays, magnets, jewelry, and a salt & pepper set. Love the brick!

Full story via stylehive

LEGO Digital Designer

Tell me LEGO doesn’t know their customers. LEGO’s Digitial Designer software allows you to build a 3D model of your dream creation, and then order the parts needed to make it a reality. Once built, submit your creation to their product gallery. If you’ve ever had a fantasy of creating an Oop!-like LEGO sculpture, this looks like the best way to do it.

I wonder how the revenues of the simple Lego starter kits compare to some of their advanced sets. I’ve always assumed that the sheer quantity of those starter sets are heavily favored in the revenue mix, even if their margins aren’t as high as some of the advanced sets. But LEGO most definitely does not ignore the loyal hobbyists.

This software just made it to the top of my spare time to-do list.

LEGO.com Factory and Digital Designer software

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