New SD card rivals DVD-R capacity
It’s a little thing, really, but it still strikes me as a milestone: SanDisk announced this morning that its 4-gigabyte SDHC (Secure Digital, High Capacity) card will be available in October for about $216.
What’s so special about a 4GB card that costs more than a mid-range, 4GB iPod nano? It’s that SD cards have finally hit that magic point where you can store a ton of stuff on them.
Nintendo Wii scores a spot on Toys 'R' Us list of must-haves for the holidays
CNET’s got this story that details Nintendo’s coup, which makes it the first-ever game system to make the retailer’s “Fabulous 15″ list of toys for the season.
As long as this latest console war (PlayStation 3 vs. XBox 360 vs. Nintendo Wii) has been brewing, I’ve found Nintendo interesting to watch. I’ve wondered whether Microsoft and Sony – particularly Sony – might be making a mistake similar to the one Intel recently made in microprocessors: taking their dominance for granted, and assuming that more horsepower always equals a better experience.
First look: An anti-bacterial mouse to go with that soap
Germ Free Wireless Laser Mouse
Iogear
$39.95
USB, RF
Windows 2000, XP; Mac OS X 10.1.5+
Utility Factor: Low/Medium
Cool Factor: High
I could barely bring myself to give a high “cool” rating to a product that has “Germ Free” as the first two words in its name – the marketing seemed to be playing a little too much to the obsessive-compulsive crowd. But once I popped in the batteries, plugged it in and took the darn thing for a test run, I couldn’t resist. (Plus, the words “germ free” don’t appear anywhere on the little mouse itself.)
Review: iPod 80GB, with new iPod Games
iPod 80GB
Apple Computer
$349 (or 30GB version for $249)
Battery: music, 20 hrs.; video & games 6.5 hrs.
Utility Factor: High
Cool Factor: High
More than ever, Apple is letting the iPod stretch beyond its role as the world’s best media player. With the advent of iPod Games, the option for movie downloads and a smart new iPod control panel in iTunes 7, the device is taking its first steps toward becoming a full-fledged entertainment platform.
A better, cheaper nano: Apple's holiday gift to itself
I just love folks who enjoy cracking stuff open and seeing how it works – and iSuppli is at it again. The research firm has published the results of a “tear-down” of the iPod nano, which basically means they took the thing apart, spread its guts out on a table, and tallied up the cost of the pieces.
What iSuppli found should send shivers down the spines of competitors like SanDisk, Creative and iRiver, who have already been lapped by the iPod in the audio player race: Apple Computer has figured out how to build the second-generation nano at a lower cost than the first. Since Apple’s positioning the new nano as the must-have gadget of the holiday season, Apple’s efficiency amounts to a big Christmas gift to itself.
The cost of the parts in the $199, 4-gigabyte nano is $72.24, said Andrew Rassweiler, teardown services manager and senior analyst for iSuppli; that’s $17.73 less than the original iPod’s $89.97 bill of materials price tag.
Laptops: Tight supply of screens could mean fewer holiday discounts
Some news from a tracking firm that could put a damper on your year-end laptop buying spree: Don’t expect to see prices dive too far.
The reason is that the market for TFT-LCD panels is tightening. Since folks in the industry are expecting a pretty decent holiday season, there’s been a run on the flat panels that go into TVs, desktop displays and laptops, according to research firm iSuppli.
Google still clobbering Yahoo, MSN
Google handled half of all U.S. searches in August, up 30 percent from a year ago – that’s not only the biggest raw number, it’s the second largest gain (tied with Ask.com) behind My Way Search, which had less than 3 percent. As Google search starts showing up on more mobile devices, this kind of lead in overall search will matter more and more.
The latest from Nielsen//NetRatings:
MacBook: Random shutdowns plague users
Too soon to tell how big a problem this is, but it looks like a pain for the people experiencing it. Apparently, some MacBooks are suddenly, randomly shutting down. Just turning off completely. Details here. I’ve got a call in to Apple for comment, so check back for updates.
UPDATE: An Apple spokeswoman directed me to this page on the site that tells people having the problem to contact AppleCare. Not much help. I’m asking for more details about the problem.
Hardmac.com has this: Some are saying Apple has indicated it’s an incompatibility problem between some motherboards and some cooling systems. “The previous cooling system was expanding more than expected when draining the heat from the CPU, and as a consequence was creating a short-circuit of one of the temperature sensors leading to the emergency shutdown of the notebook.”
UPDATE: Finally, an admission of the problem from Apple, it seems.
iPod nano: Behind the colors
Greg Joswiak is one of my favorite guys to chat with at Apple. As any journalist who’s covered the company knows, “chatting” with Apple execs is no simple task – they’re minded so closely by the PR folks that they rarely seem to say much that’s spontaneously interesting.
Joz, though, has been around long enough to relax a bit. And in his current post as vice president of worldwide iPod product marketing, he’s got a lot of insights into what’s arguably the most important consumer electronics product of the decade.
I caught up with Joz at the event last week where Apple unveiled the iTV, iTunes 7 and the new iPods.
