If you ever owned a blackberry, you will know there are tons of ways to accessorize your crackberry. Ever wonder how people walk and type at the same time? They cheat! Most of the time they aren’t looking for the obstacles that exist in front of them! Check out this useful accessory that Rick Mercer from the CBC put out. I sure hope they start making one of these for Palm Treo, iPods, PSP, and a kids version for the Nintendo DS. These days kids need something like this!

via Steffen Nork from Frankfurt, Germany

As previously mentioned, I had figure out what kind of welcome gift I wanted from Amazon.com.  Well I went ahead an used Amazon.com’s ’send to a friend’ link and requested this Xbox 360 premium bundle.  I never heard from the ‘giver’ about the item, so I assumed that the email got lost, or they decided that it wasn’t a ‘productivity tool’ and I would never see the Xbox 360.  The next day, they were out of stock.  Now I was totally bummed since they didn’t respond and they were out of stock again.  Meaning they would have had to order it the day I requested, or I was out of luck again.  I have been scouring Amazon.com for an item and have yet to find one.  I gave up hope last week and decided to wait for the next generation of ‘video iPod’ to come out.  I have a 40GB iRiver MP3 player which is great, so I didn’t need a new one now.

My luck changed this morning!  I got an email from my ‘giver’ and she said it would ship on 4/17!  That’s Monday, which means it should be here by next weekend.  As soon as I get it hooked up, your all invited to come over and play.  I’ll need to grab a few extra controllers via my Amazon.com gift cards maybe, and a few extra multiplayer games.  My brother is coming to visit on just the right weekend.

Okay so there are like a million ipod cases out there today. However if you never upgraded to the Nano you might want to check out these Isweats. Its a fun way to dress up you ipod while making sure that you Ipod stays safe and protected.

I Sweats

One of the highlights of last week’s CTIA show in Las Vegas was the introduction of a new technology from Qualcomm - MediaFLO. This new service is designed to allow users to watch live TV on their cell phones. Qualcomm had a demo system up and running in Las Vegas with 9 channels of sports, news, stocks and more.

Having seen this technology first hand, I must say, it is one of the more impressive demonstrations I’ve seen on a cell phone of late. Imagine, you’re waiting for the bus, so instead of reading the paper, you can just watch CNBC live, or catch ESPN SportsCenter while you’re waiting for your next flight. This will really bring new meaning to anytime anywhere access to your entertainment.

For more on this, for this link: Light Reading - Mobile/Wireless - MediaFLO Demos CTIA - Telecom News Wire

iLounge is reporting that Numark, who makes various DJ equipment like mixers and turntables, will debut the updated iDJ2 iPod mixer.  The original iDJ had several major flaws which have been fixed.  It has pitch control which would allow you to beat match perfectly.  I don’t know if they fixed the issue with cued listening, so your cued channel is in the headphones while the other channel is pumping up the crowd.  Now with only one iPods required you can play two tracks simultaneously, record the mix back to the iPod, and use external hard drives that can attach via USB.  Hopefully they keep the price around $300, since the original iDJ was $250, which would bring the casual home party DJ market right to Numark’s doorstep with cash in hand.  I look forward to stopping at Guitar Center to play with one of these in the coming month.

Source: Engadget, iLounge

So I love my new cable box that I got last Fall via my cable provider, Millenium Digital Media. It gives me roughly 9 channels of HD included and I could add-on another 6 not exciting channels (the only good one is ESPN HD and I don’t want to pay extra $10/mo just for that).  I currently use DVI for video and the digital audio output.  It works great, except for the occasional drop in audio, which I attribute to my Kenwood stereo for being a fairly cheap surround sound setup which gets confused by the 5.1 digital audio changes from show to show.  My HD DVR box is also a Motorola box with dual tuners, which allows me to record 2 shows and watch a recorded show at the same time.  The software isn’t great, but it works for the most part.  It gets hung on trying to watch deleted shows and currently MDM is having problems with the NBC HD broadcast, which is mighty annoying.

I was browsing the web and saw a post by Alex Scoble who hates his Comcast DVR and referenced Scott Hanselman who also didn’t like his DVR.  I know Castle and Schlosser have a Comcast box from the Seattle area with the Microsoft software, but I haven’t looked at the back of theirs from a hardware perspective.  I know it has dual-tuners, but not sure about HDMI or DVI.  It seems to be way faster than the old OS, and still faster than Tivo and my MDM box.  Guys, want to chime in on your feedback on the device?

I prefer this box to my Tivo (use for basic analog tv) since I think Tivo is behind on the technology front.  Requiring a phone line or ethernet, no cable HD box, and no dual-tuner.  I pay an extra $10/mo for the DVR, and I didn’t have to buy the hardware.  I won’t be moving to a Tivo unless they step up to play with the big boys at Motorola and Microsoft.  Some partnerships with local cable companies would really help them out instead of being an independant provider.

Back in February I posted about the struggles that we face with current user interfaces. Well just recently I came upon a video on YouTube that shows a multi-touch user interface. The applications of this are almost endless as shown by the video. This screen records the input of multiple touches on its screen; whereas current touch surfaces (screens or trackpads on your laptop) can only record one touch at a time. If you try to touch it in two places at a time you get sporadic, unpredictable response. Check out the below video and keep your fingers crossed that this becomes mainstream quickly! (I know it’s long, but you get to see MANY possible applications of this technology).

Are gadgets getting too complex for the average person? My parents don’t even use all the features of their standard Verizon Wireless phones. And I pray that they don’t decide to get a Windows Smartphone because I know I’d be writing a personal FAQ for each of them.

A Netherlands researcher noted that “Half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores by consumers are in full working order, but customers can’t figure out how to operate the devices.” This was reported in a recent Reuters article. It also noted that the average consumer in the United States will “struggle for 20 minutes with a device before giving up,” and even a group of employees from the consumer electronics company Philips couldn’t figure out how to get some new products to work.

What are the reasons someone has to struggle for 20 minutes to get something working the way he or she wants? Is it poor user interface design? Poor documentation? Operator error? I am a big fan of simplicity when it comes to a user interface. Two phrases from former college professors come to mind when I think about this. One: K.I.S.S., which stands for keep it simple stupid! Overly complex hardware or software products are not only confusing for consumers to figure out, but also mask bugs and other problems increasing the chance of a buggy product being shipped. The second phrase that I think of is from a computer science professor. He said to design your code to do one thing and do it well. This is better than doing 14 things half-assed like much software and hardware I see these days.

As posted on Scoble and Engadget this morning, interesting developments. I have been hearing talk about some kind of mobile device, the question is what functionality it will contain. My guess would be a mobile media center with wireless connectivity and some link to xbox live. Maybe two flavors: one for business, one for media. Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks.

Origami Project

First Verdict? I Love it. Cingular’s new Windows Mobile based smart phone is a hit. I have had Windows Mobile phones in the past but this one just simply works, and works as you would expect. Set up your mail, how often you would like to sync and you are set. Not only does it keep track of my corporate mail but it tracks my hotmail, calendar and of course acts as a phone. One of the coolest features is the new way Windows Mobile displays contacts, the graphics now live up to the phone. This is a system you want to use. Also included are a 1.3 mega pixel camera, bluetooth and EDGE. The internet is fast, the antenna seems to pick up coverage everywhere, in elevators, on P5 in my apartment building and in the dead zone I call an office. One gripe, it is impossible to turn on or off as the power button doesn’t seem to work very well…however given all that is great on this phone I don’t see having to turn it off very often.

If you are one of the millions of blackberry users terrified of what might happen in the next couple weeks you may want to check out this HTC built phone, you won’t be disappointed.