January 20, 2006, 2:51 PM PST
Oakley's Thump 2 sunglasses hit the slopes
Posted by: Jasmine France

And that's just where they belong. One word: wow. I've used the Oakley Thump 2 before while testing it out in the office, but the sunglass/MP3 player combo isn't something I'd use day to day--I prefer a high-capacity MP3 player with a screen and my $10 if-you-lose-them-it's-no-big-deal shades. However, when I went snowboarding in Colorado last weekend, I decided the Thump 2 was the perfect accoutrement for the trip, and I was right. I will never snowboard with a regular MP3 player again. Further, I don't think I can ever 'board in poor weather again, because that would mean I'd have to wear goggles, a serious step down from the Thump 2 sunglasses. The glasses themselves provide excellent eye protection from the sun's harmful rays, which can be particularly blinding when reflecting off bright white snow, and the dark tint was perfect for a sunny day on the slopes. Of course, the cherry is the built-in MP3 player. No more taking your player in and out of your pocket to adjust track, volume, and so on, and no more fiddling with a dangling earbud every time you need to talk to your run buddy (for example, every 15 minutes getting on the lift). Although I had to remove my glove to adjust a track or the volume, having all those controls perched right on the side of my head was handy beyond words. And I definitely didn't mind not having an LCD; there's just no need for it here. I didn't even have to remove my gloves to flip the adjustable earbuds in and out of my ears, which I was constantly doing on the right side. Plus, the earbuds don't seal up your ears, so you can still hear what's going on around you--an essential feature when you want to be aware of your surroundings, which I always do when riding a hill with many other people. If you're second home during the winter is up on a snow-covered mountain--and you have some cash to blow--I highly recommend picking up a pair of Oakley's Thump 2 sunglasses. They even work with my Mac!

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January 20, 2006, 2:46 PM PST
Cell phones and radiation
Posted by: Kent German

The ongoing debate over cell radiation entered yet another phase this week when the British Medical Journal published a study that found using a cell phone does not pose a greater risk of developing a brain tumor. Researchers from three universities and a London cancer research institute conducted a four-year study of 996 adults with glioma, a type of brain cancer. An additional 1,716 healthy subjects acted as a control group. "Use of a mobile phone, either in the short or medium term, is not associated with an increased risk of glioma. This is consistent with most but not all published studies," the study said.

But wait, there's more. Like every other study on the subject, this newest research is inconclusive at best; it didn't prove there is a risk, but it didn't prove there isn't one either. As a result, expect cell phone radiation to remain a controversial subject. For more information, see CNET's cell phone radiation charts.

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January 20, 2006, 2:32 PM PST
Retro-futurism, circa 1989
Posted by: Dan Ackerman

The fine folks at Digg.com have a great link today to a 1989 Compute! magazine article about what the state of technology would be in 2001.

Among the amazingly prescient predictions were:

Optical disks will popularize desktop libraries, which in turn will alter our whole sense of computing.

"It'll also allow you to store audio and video," said Phillip Robinson, a computer consultant with Virtual Information of Sausalito, California. "You'll be able to capture segments of a show you like, cut them out, and put them in a video report for school."

High-definition TV (HDTV)...will eventually accept digital as well as analog input.

By the twenty-first century, multitasking will be everywhere...Imagine your computer playing an aria in the background as you write, search an online database, or blast space blobs.

"The VCR is much more difficult to use than it would be if a computer were controlling it," said Lotus's Robert Simon. "For instance, you could tell it to record all episodes of a particular series, rather than your preprogramming it."

Instead of the notebooks we carried to school, our kids will be carrying computer note-books.

Movies will probably be squirted into the home through the telecommunications lines.

Less on the money were calls like these:

The personal computer as we know it will persist longer in the home than in business...but by 1996-1997, they'll start to disappear.

You wake up [and] scan the custom newspaper that's spilling from your fax.

Door locks will be microcontrolled from a keypad; computers could also regulate cosmetic mirrors, changing the amount of magnification and light.

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January 20, 2006, 2:23 PM PST
Blu-ray and HD-DVD: crippled HD analog output option
Posted by: David Katzmaier

Thanks to an overzealous copy-protection scheme enforced by content holders (read: movie studios), forthcoming next-generation optical disc players, including Blu-ray and HD-DVD models, will give studios the option to hobble the resolution of the players' analog outputs. In a decision reached earlier this week, the eight-company consortium behind AACS (Advanced Access Content System), the mandatory copy-protection system used by both formats, has decided to let each studio choose whether to "downconvert" the output of the players' component-video outputs to 960x540 resolution--exactly one quarter of the potential 1,920x1,080 resolution of true high-def.

"Huh?" you ask. The effect of the downconversion is that HDTVs whose only HD-compatible inputs are component video or analog RGB, including thousands of HDTVs sold before digital DVI and HDMI inputs were available, will not be able to display the full resolution that next-gen players offer. People who bought those HDTVs won't see nearly the full picture detail that they would otherwise.

Under the finalized version of AACS, studios can elect whether to engage a "flag" in the disc that tells the player to allow or disallow full-resolution analog signals. According to an excellent summary of the decision from Video Business (via Dark Horizons), no studio has yet stated whether it plans to take advantage of the downconversion option. According to unnamed sources in the article, Warner Brothers has been the strongest proponent of the system, and Disney, NBC Universal, and Paramount are also likely to take advantage of it. Other sources said that it's unclear whether Sony Pictures would take advantage, while Fox has been an opponent of the system. Studios will be required to state on the disc's packing material whether downconversion will be forced for that particular title.

Other interesting notes from the Video Business story:

• Proponents of downconversion argue that people have a hard time telling the difference between downconverted and true HD resolutions in the first place.
• They also say that since many HDTVs have limited native resolution anyway, the downconverted resolution isn't that bad. For example, if you own an EDTV plasma, you won't miss the lost resolution.
• Players will still have the capability to upconvert the downconverted output to 720p or 1080i. There's no way to reclaim the lost picture detail, however.

I think this decision makes no sense from a copy-protection point of view, and I hope the smart studios realize how important it is to allow full-resolution component-video output and set the flags on their discs to Off. First, large-scale copying will take place regardless of whether the analog outputs are crippled--professional pirates will undoubtedly find a way that doesn't involve recording an analog signal in real time. Second, enthusiasts who bought an HDTV two or three years ago are among the few people likely to want one of the early next-gen players (PS3 notwithstanding), and alienating them is never a good idea. Finally, HD-DVD and Blu-ray face enough hurdles already: two warring incompatible formats, high prices, competition from standard DVD and future downloadable options, and customer confusion, to name a few. They don't need another red flag.

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January 20, 2006, 1:50 PM PST
Radio days are here for entrepreneurs
Posted by: Elsa Wenzel

New forms of radio--via podcasts, the Web, and satellite--allow small businesses to market their services and share their expertise directly with interested customers. For little or no cost, you can create your own podcast, a radio show that people around the world can download and listen to at their leisure on an MP3 player or a PC.

Need to keep up with trends in your field? A growing number of tech-savvy business owners are tuning in to Net radio shows and listening to podcasts. And you can find hundreds of small-business podcasts created by experts in their fields. Take the Lazy Environmentalist podcast, for example, hosted by Josh Dorfman, founder of eco-friendly furniture store Vivavi. What's the big deal about podcasting? Dorfman explains via e-mail:

"If you have something to say, a point of view, particularly as an entrepreneur, you're doing yourself a disservice if you're not using the supercheap tools available to brand yourself as an expert in your field. Google makes all content easily accessible, and people will find you if you [are] writing/podcasting on the things that are important to you and your company."

If you're not yet ready to pick up a mic and host your own show but the keyboard looks appealing, then see our tips on branding your business with a blog.

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January 20, 2006, 1:21 PM PST
iMac Core Duo boots faster, it's true
Posted by: Rich Brown

This is an excerpt from our review of Apple's iMac Core Duo, found here.

There's been some talk online about iMac Core Duo being able to boot faster than the old iMac G5. A video posted on Web site YouTube showed the iMac Core Duo booting faster. Then Apple enthusiast site Silver Mac posted test results showing that the iMac G5 was actually not that bad. Curious, we ran our own boot-time test, comparing our 2.0GHz iMac Core Duo to a 2.1GHz iMac G5.

Each system started from its fresh-from-the-box disk image, then we updated all of the default software via Apple's autoupdate tools. Under those conditions, we ran three clean boots and stopped the clock when every component finished loading. The iMac G5 booted in an average of 46.6 seconds. The iMac Core Duo came up in an impressive 25.7 seconds. Your mileage may vary based upon hardware and software variation, but conditions being as equal as they can be given different chipsets and operating systems, the iMac Core Duo boots nearly twice as fast as the older iMac G5.

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January 20, 2006, 7:43 AM PST
New high-end Sony HD cams to use blue laser media
Posted by: Will Greenwald

Sony has revealed a new line of high-end, high-def video cameras that can use blue laser optical media. Sony's new XDCam HD series of video cameras can record 1080i high-definition video with variable frame rates and can use Sony's new blue laser Professional Disc media. The blue laser Professional Disc will be one of the first blue laser optical media formats available on the market. Don't expect to use them before Blu-ray or HD-DVD, though; the blue laser Professional Disc-compatible camcorders will cost between $15,000 and $27,000. Both the blue laser Professional Discs and the XDCam HD camcorders will ship in June. Each blue laser Professional Disc will cost about $30 and will store 23.3GB of information.

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