Alpha authors
- Dan Ackerman
- Rich Brown
- David Carnoy
- Bonnie Cha
- Brian Cooley
- Wayne Cunningham
- Robert Dubbin
- Matthew Elliott
- John Falcone
- Jasmine France
- Kent German
- Will Greenwald
- Lori Grunin
- Justin Jaffe
- David Katzmaier
- James Kim
- Nicole Lee
- Lara Luepke
- Kevin Massy
- Tom Merritt
- Tim Moynihan
- Rafe Needleman
- David Rudden
- Philip Ryan
- Michelle Thatcher
- Robert Vamosi
- Elsa Wenzel
- Molly Wood
- Felisa Yang
August 17, 2005, 6:13 PM PDTExporting toxic tech
Posted by: Elsa Wenzel Nobody wants lead and other poisonous ingredients of electronic gadgets in their own backyard. In recent years, tech corporations, including Dell, NEC, HP, and others, have accelerated efforts to safely dispose of their used goods. But some e-waste programs send the toxic trash to China and India, where people handling the scraps suffer its hazards. Greenpeace calls for more global regulation, even as strict European laws are forcing tech companies to make cleaner, greener products. Prepare for a growing battle over how businesses big and small should get rid of their appliances. Permalink | 1 comment
- Read also: Work
- Email to a friend | Print this post
August 17, 2005, 6:09 PM PDTRally day for Ferrari owners (and me)
Posted by: Wayne Cunningham
This week, I had the sheer pleasure (and gave my coworkers fits of jealousy) of spending a day driving Ferraris around the Napa wine country here in Northern California. Ferrari sponsored three days of rallying, which attracted around 60 Ferrari owners--which meant 60 Ferraris, ranging in age from newborn to 50 years old. The first two days were spent in Napa and the surrounding counties on some truly excellent twisty mountain roads. The final day was a trek down to Pebble Beach, where the Ferraris would arrive in time for the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and the Monterey Historic Automobile Races. The Ferrari owners were serious about competing in the rally, but we members of the press got to drive along without the pressure of recording our times.
The first car I drove was the F430 Spider. Although powered by only eight cylinders, this car moved along in breathtaking fashion. With the top down, I could hear the symphony that is the hallmark of Ferrari engines. The tuning is spectacular, as is the acceleration. The cabin looks kind of low tech, with metal plates holding buttons and switches, but this car is as high tech as it gets where performance is concerned. The F1 transmission is a clutchless manual that you shift via paddles on the steering column. The left side is down, and the right is up. It works brilliantly, although it takes a little getting used to. The F430 includes five suspension settings accessible from a metal dial on the steering wheel. I kept it in Sport mode, which was more than adequate to keep it hugging the road while I pushed it hard around the curves. The stability control is subtle, but I felt it help me out here and there. I don't think I ceased grinning throughout lunch.
And the next car I drove, the 612 Scaglietti, did nothing to remove the grin. The F430 is a classic Ferrari roadster, offering all the sounds and feel of the road at full bore. The 612 is a coupe with 2+2 seating and leather encasing the cabin. That beautiful Ferrari engine sound is muted in the 612, even though it's generated by a 6.0-liter 12-cylinder. The 612 includes the same F1 transmission and some more obvious tech. An LCD next to the tach shows tire pressure, oil temperature, and other essential information. The wheel is power adjustable, and the stereo can take four CDs. However, I didn't really notice these niceties, as the 612 shoots up to incredible speeds with even less effort than the F430; 100mph feels like 60. Of course, being a heavier car, it doesn't feel as solid on the curves, but that's partly due to the fact that I was usually going faster than I thought. The tach is the main gauge on the instrument cluster in both cars, with the speedometer pushed off to the side. That arrangement is a good indication of Ferrari priorities.
* Wasn't it Eddie Money who said, "Driving one Ferrari is like a ticket to paradise. Driving two is like two tickets to paradise"?
Permalink | 10 comments- Read also: Car Tech
- Email to a friend | Print this post
August 17, 2005, 3:56 PM PDTCamera phones come of age?
Posted by: Kent German
)
[+] Enlarge photo
Analysts love studies like these, but I can't help but be a little skeptical. Sure, we now have 2-megapixel mobiles such as the Samsung MM-A800, but camera phones have a long way to go before they replace even low-grade digital cameras. Until a camera phone offers optical zoom, a really usable flash, and a solid set of editing options, I don't think they'll remain anything more than fun novelties. And though the megapixel camera phones may offer decent photo quality, you still have the problem of getting the pictures off the phone. Some handsets, including the MM-A800, let you send your shots directly to a photo printer, but it's extremely irritating that carriers such as Sprint and Verizon Wireless limit wireless photo transfer to a computer unless you go through their data services. As long as carriers insist on having a piece of the photo-transfer pie, I'll stick with my reliable standalone camera.
Permalink | 1 comment- Read also: Cell phones
- Email to a friend | Print this post
August 17, 2005, 3:19 PM PDTYour Shuffle can play like the big boys
Posted by: Jasmine France
)
[+] Enlarge photo
- Read also: MP3 players
- Email to a friend | Print this post
August 17, 2005, 10:12 AM PDTThe PC-to-TiVo connection
Posted by: Dan Ackerman
People are always interested in taking video files from their TiVo or other DVR box and sending them to a desktop or laptop computer. We never really thought about going the other way--sending video files from a PC hard drive to a TiVo, but apparently someone finds it useful, because TiVo has posted a support article showing you how to do just that.
If your TiVo is part of a home computer network, this trick lets you watch PC-based files through your television, using the TiVo as a sort of digital media receiver. If you're so inclined, it's a little tricky to pull off but not impossible. Just make sure you have your TiVo box upgraded to software version 7.2.
You probably already have the TiVo Desktop 2.1 app on your PC, so just convert your video files to the MPEG-2 format, using a program such as Premiere or Nero, and stick them in the TiVo folder on your hard drive--usually in My Documents > My TiVo Recordings. After that, an entry for your PC-based files should be available through your TiVo. See, that wasn't very hard at all, was it?
Permalink | 1 comment- Read also: Desktops
- Email to a friend | Print this post
August 17, 2005, 9:30 AM PDTMarch of the Xbox 360 accessories
Posted by: Robert Dubbin I touched on this briefly in the previous post, but today's Xbox 360 announcements also included an official list of approved accessories. Reproduced for your consumption:
Naturally, all of these are pricey; we expect nothing less from proprietary peripherals. But unlike Xboxes past, for which unscrupulous overseas exporters could pump out $10 knockoffs within seconds of launch, the Xbox 360 has a rigid security mechanism to ensure that only properly approved and licensed accessories can be used with the box.
So, while DRM schemes can be cracked--and we're not ruling that out for the future--for now, you'll have to shell out for a 64MB memory card that somehow costs $40. Ugh--haven't we, as a civilization, advanced past the point where we need proprietary memory cards? Memory hasn't been this expensive per megabyte since 640K was enough for everybody. I wonder how much they'll charge for the 2,400baud modem.
Permalink | 21 comments- Read also: Gaming
- Email to a friend | Print this post
August 17, 2005, 9:20 AM PDTXbox 360 pricing: the pain, the pain!
Posted by: Molly Wood Microsoft has announced pricing for the Xbox 360: $299. No biggie, that's how much the original Xbox cost when it first came out. But the "premium" version, translated as "the one you actually want," costs $399. Argh! It's too much! I refuse! Oh, OK, let me get my checkbook. Permalink | 13 comments
- Read also: Buzz
- Email to a friend | Print this post
August 17, 2005, 9:00 AM PDTXbox 360 pricing and bundles confirmed
Posted by: Robert Dubbin A flood of Xbox 360 pricing details hit the wire this morning, confirming that Microsoft's next-generation console will launch in two flavors: a $299 edition that comes with one wired controller, a detachable faceplate, and standard A/V cables; and a souped-up $399 version that ships with a 20GB hard drive, a wireless controller, a wireless headset, a limited-edition wireless Media Center remote, and HD-capable component A/V cables. Both SKUs will include a basic Xbox Live Silver membership.
The long and short of the announcement is this: Yes, you'll be able to get an Xbox 360 for the same $299 you would have paid to get the original Xbox back in 2001. But you'll be getting a deliberately bare-bones rig whose necessary accessories will bring you perilously close to the cost of the $399 package anyway; without a hard drive, you'll need a memory card, and the "official" 64MB model ($39.99) is only 60 bucks cheaper than the bump up to the 20GB deluxe package.
Also significant about this release is what it didn't tell us: there's still no confirmed release date, nor are there any set launch titles (whoops!). But gamers now know exactly what size piggy bank they'll need to fill between now and the holidays.
Permalink | 21 comments- Read also: Gaming
- Email to a friend | Print this post
August 17, 2005, 6:19 AM PDTIt's a bot war, not a virus attack
Posted by: Robert Vamosi
)
[+] Enlarge photo
- Read also: Software
- Email to a friend | Print this post
