iPhone Knocks ‘Em Dead

The new iPhone is so amazing, I almost have to buy it, don’t I?!? Big problem though… look who they’ve chosen as their exclusive service provider:

“They’re going to be our exclusive partner in the US — it’s a unique partnership though. We’re going to be doing innovation together. We worked on visual voicemail, the first fruit of this collaboration. We’ll be selling iPhone through our own stores and Cingular stores.” [link]

Cingular consistently gets very low ratings from groups like Consumer Reports and my brother isn’t so happy with his service since he switched. What’s a tech-geek to do?

In related news, Cisco sues Apple over iPhone trademark. I think Apple’s track record of using the “i” + item type will help them with the judge. Cisco is likely just looking for a settlement.

Update: Now that I’ve been gushing about the Pros, here come the Cons Thanks to Jeff I’ve gone in search of info on Cisco’s iPhone.

Motorola Promotes Mobile TV

The interface is nice and simple, but I wonder about start-up costs. Certainly the concept is one that would be welcomed by our entertainment-centered society.

Web Marketing Just Keeps Getting Better

There’s just so much that Web marketing can do that TV, Print, etc. can’t. Interactivity mainly, but so much more. Especially when those in charge of creating the promotion understand how the medium works and it’s limits. This piece for Treo is masterful. [broadband required]

Ultrasound Technology Is Amazing

The clarity and sharpness of some of these images is incredible. It won’t be long before proud parents will be walking around, showing off pictures of their pre-born children on their iPods.

Massive Helmet Affords 360-Degree View

It’s big, yes, but at least it’s black. You know, the slimming factor.

Lumalive Video Clothes

These guys are going to make serious bank. Can you imagine all the promotion companies clamoring for this stuff? The options are practically endless! Then we’ll have even more of the kooks who’ll sell their bodies as adverstising space.

Zap Car Uses Standard Electrical Outlets

Unlike most electrical cars, these cars from Zap can recharge from a standard 110-volt outlet. How does a full-charge for a dollar sound?

Click Density Turns Data Into Pictures

Pretty cool stuff over there at clickdensity. Just goes to show that despite all of our best efforts as Designers/Developers, people will continue to click wherever they darn well want to.

Toshiba’s Gigabeat S Takes on iPod

I don’t want to rehash all the specs, just go to c|net for that, but suffice it to say, the new Toshiba Gigabeat S is a worthy competitor to the iPod.

iPod fanatics feel free to chime in and tell me I’m wrong. I know you want to. C’mon… go for it. ;^)

At $300, I’m finally tempted to join to the portable digital music crowd because I won’t have to deal with iTunes. Here’s the video first look.

Giving In To Temptation

Usually it’s my brother who’s out nabbing up the latest and greatest technological marvels. (He got the gene from my Dad.) But today, wonder of wonders, my current cellphone’s battery suddenly stopped holding its charge. Hmmm…. and this right after I saw that new cellphone commercial too…

So I HAD to get a new phone, right? And why shouldn’t I get one that’s so bloody freakin’ stellar I shouldn’t be allowed within 10 feet of one, much less owning one? No reason really. Thus behold, the wonder that is the Samsung t509.

If you tell my wife, I’ll hunt you down.

Water Powered Car, Mostly

Very interesting story from a local station here in Louisville, about a Florida inventor who’s fine-tuning his Ford Escort powered mostly from water. It seems Mr. Denny Klein has done something once thought impossible—break H²O down into HHO gas. Now, the car is far from perfected but it seems the most difficult hurdle has been passed.

My first thought is that government needs to restructure our current tax system so that small business owners and entrepreneurs can be free to create and develop. These breakthroughs are ultimately what drive our economy.

MacBook Joins the Party

The new MacBooks have been announced and it seems there are some worthwhile improvements. Not only does the new hardware boot in 1.4 seconds, it automatically loads the last program/file you were working on! Then it computes the most likely lottery numbers and automatically orders what you’re missing in your fridge. And! It says nice things like, “You’re soooo good-looking.”

Ok. I made that last one up.

Micropayments by IndieKarma

kottke has his usually thorough analysis of a new micropayment system called IndieKarma. He’s fairly complimentary except for a few design changes, but until they reach a critical population mass, of sorts, it may fail. Worth checking out if you’re:

1. A genuinely generous sould;
2. Run a high-traffic site; or
3. Think karma is God

World’s Largest Ferris Wheel

Mr. Ferris would have been proud. I doubt anyone will change their reservations from the Cayman Islands to China but it doesn’t hurt.

Microsoft Skins Its Knee

I bet many of you IE users have noticed that browing a site containing Flash content requires some extra attention these days. (For those with updated version of IE, you can tell by looking at the masthead above. Try to interact with it and on mouseover you get a text tag that reads, “Click to activate and use this control”.)

This is because Microsoft apparently lost a court battle (what’s new?) and had to change the way they implemented Active X controls. So I hear you say, “Then it’s not Microsoft’s fault, right?” Wrong! They should not have made Active X such an integral part of their browser, in my opinion. There are workarounds. *sigh*

Or, we could all just Switch to FireFox.