Xeeban’s Musings

Today a nifty device arrived, the Oregon Scientific ATC3K.  It is a small battery powered video camera that stores video on SD cards.  It takes full color digital video at 640 x 480 VGA at 30 frames a second.  It is also waterproof up to about 3 meters, so it is good for all sorts of outdoor activities.

My friends and I have been taking some low quality video with my Sony Cyber Shot during our weekly rides, but the quality of the video is very poor even for uploading to YouTube.  This new camera at VGA resolution should be much nicer.  Not as nice as a real video camera, but not bad.  Plus it’s small enough to mount to a bike helmet and is relatively cheap so destroying it in a crash would not be too much of a loss.  The camera will hold up to a 4GB SD card and uses about 2 gigabytes per hour, so this should enable me to capture 2 hours of continuous footage before having to swap out the SD card.

It comes with several attachment accessories so you can mount the camera to a bicycle or to a helmet.  I’ll probably be helmet mounting the camera to get a little more stability.

So I jumped on the bandwagon and got an iPhone… I must say, it is a sexy and sweet device.  My poor iPod Touch is now neglected and will soon be given away to find a new home.  This device is the killer combination of phone, MP3 player, video player and PDA.  Not to mention the connectivity so you have the web and email all in the palm of your hand.  Amazing.

The new applications that are available are very nice too.  Some are real gems, like Shazam that allows you to identify any song that you might hear playing.  Midomi is a similar app that even identifies songs that you hum or sing.  Totally amazing!

Ever wanted a real cone of silence? This company has something that is pretty close: http://www.sonaretechnologies.com/babble.html

It rebroadcasts snippets of your real voice, causing the effect of scrambling what you say so that others cannot understand. It sounds a lot like a room full of people. Very interesting gadget!

A keyboard for the Uber Geek. This is a totally black computer keyboard with nothing at all on the keys. The keys are all blank! The whole thing looks like some stealth ninja keyboard.

http://www.daskeyboard.com

Apparently not having the keys labeled makes one even faster and more accurate with typing after the initial training period.

There is a sexy new iPod just hitting the streets : http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/

It comes in a 2GB and 4 GB version and looks very sweet. I think I may have to get myself a birthday present here soon…

The alarm went off at 6am and I jumped into the shower and ran out the door to meet fellow cohorts Karl and Mark at the parking lot of our office so we could embark on our yearly homage to the great gods of consumerism. Today was the great yearly Memorial Day sale at Guitar Center.

And today was the day I brought home my Yamaha 01X!

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Apple’s iPod has reached a cult like status amongst quality-conscious consumers. Something about it just screams quality and must have. But its a delicate device that is easilly scratched. To answer that problem, a bunch of companies have come out with nice cases for this device.

Recently I’ve bought a case from Vaja Cases a merchant in Buenos Aires that makes some sexy iPod cases. So far I am very happy with it. Its very well designed and built. It fits the iPod very snuggly, so it won’t slip out. Even without the iPod inserted, its very rigid and sturdy. And its got a great leather smell. They must be popular. The price went up 20% in the last few days…

Gucci even makes a case… Someone else will have to review this one tho.

I am drooling over these new phones from Sony Ericsson. I just got my new T-610 phone and am very happy with it, but these new phones are so much more drool worthy.

The K700
The S700

Okay, this is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. Robots that can play soccer. No just the basic game, but they can do things like hand stands, get up from the ground, hang their heads in shame. Take a look at the little movies that are on the site. Sweet stuff!

Here is a sample: one of the robots doing a handstand.