Devices Site

Some see watches as symbols of a bygone era and that is just what Crispin Jones thought as he designed my new favorite watches.  The Accurate model two hands read” Remember, you will die” as it tells time, urging you to seize the day.  Another model alternates messages every half hour ranging from complimentary, “you are blessed” to derogatory, “nobody likes you”.  The third is dubbed the Decider which alternates “yes” and “no” around the edge allowing you to refer to it for split second decisions.  I am sure there is a disclaimer in the packaging.

A statement from Crispin Jones about the design of the watches: 

“Today everyone has a mobile phone to do the really functional timekeeping, this means that the wristwatch is free to do something a bit different. The watches I design reflect and comment on society, both on the role that time plays in all our lives and also on the social impact of technology.

Buy: [Mr Jones Watches] via [Josh Spears]

The ScanSnap mini-scanner reviewed earlier today now comes in a Mac-compatible option. Pitched as the S300M, it’s otherwise unchanged— apart, of course, from a pearly-white paint job to go with all but the latest iMacs.

It’s $295, same as the charcoal-grey Windows version.

Press Release [Fujitsu] (Thanks, Shanee!)

According to estimates based on carrier’s numbers, only 2/3 of iPhones are “legally” activated, which means 1/3 of all iPhones sold are SIM unlocked and being used sans carrier contract. Here’s how they arrived at this number.

First, AT&T put out a press release saying that 2 million iPhones were subscribed on their service by the end of 2007. The three European carriers with iPhones (O2, Orange and T-Mobile) don’t have official numbers, but iLounge rates them at about 300-400k, which means the total is only around 2.4 million. This, with Apple’s announcement that 3.7 million iPhones were sold in 2007, makes put the number at about 1/3 of all iPhones being unlocked.

Even if the European iPhone numbers are low and AT&T customers haven’t activated their Christmas phones yet, that still puts unlocked iPhone numbers somewhere around 1/3 to 1/4, which is extremely high by any count. [iLounge - Thanks David!]

Having built many a PC in my day, I have a tremendous appreciation for cable organization done right. Generally, I think most data centers are organized halfway decently, but there are quite a few examples out there that are truly hideous. The gallery below should provide a little inspiration for anyone with a bag full of zip ties and a desire to keep things neat. In fact, the blend of colors, clean lines and the layouts come together in such a way that it could almost be considered art. However, the image after the break is a completely different story. galleryPost(’cableart’, 3, ”);

Cabling Disaster:

[Pingdom 1 and Pingdom 2 and Vibrant ]

Posted Jan 24th 2008 3:04PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: StorageIt looks like Western Digital’s hard drives are about to get a good deal denser, with the company now rolling out its first 3.5-inch WD Caviar drives based on 320GB-per-platter technology. That, as the company points out, is the very same areal density seen recently in WD’s 160 GB-per-platter 2.5-inch Scorpio drives, which topped out with a total of 320GB of storage due to the obvious size constraints. While the 3.5-inch drives have plenty more room to grow than their smaller counterparts, Western Digital seems to be starting things out slow, with only a single-platter 320GB drive available at the moment. That’ll apparently be followed by upgrades across WD’s various product lines throughout the year, including drives at “additional capacity points.,” Unfortunately, the company doesn’t seem to be ready to specify exactly what those points may be just yet, although The Inquirer speculates that we should see three-platter 1TB drives from the company before everything is all said and done.

[Via The Inquirer]

It’s no secret Blizzard’s World of Warcraft is the best performing commercial MMO ever released. Back in July of last year, it reached the 9 million subscribers mark, and somewhat inevitably it has just gone past 10 million active players.

Most of those subscribers are playing the game in Asia where the player count sits at 5.5 million. The rest of the subscribers split into 2 million across Europe and 2.5 million in North America.

Commenting on reaching double-figure millions, Mike Morhaine, CEO of Blizzard, said:

It’s very gratifying to see gamers around the world continuing to show such enthusiasm and support for World of Warcraft … We’re always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and we’re looking forward to sharing the next major content update with the entire community in the months ahead.

I believe the subscription price for WoW per month is US$14.95, which translates to Blizzard having an income from the game of roughly $149,500,000 every single month. That’s not taking into account any different pricing models in the various regions and reduced pricing for annual subscriptions. Regardless, that is an incredible amount of money, and you have to wonder what Blizzard does with it all.

With future expansions assured, is there any stopping the WoW phenomenon? I suspect the only game that has any real chance of stealing players from WoW will be a second World of Warcraft game.

Read more at MCVUK.com and the Blizzard press release.

Via’s Isaiah CPU platform, as efficient as its older C7 lineup but more than twice as fast, marks a line in the sand for the longtime maker of low-power chips.

"People used to say that if you’re not making 3GHz processors, you’re not real men," said G. Glenn Henry, president of Via subsidiary Centaur. "What everyone is now doing is very rewarding … what they’re doing suggests what we’ve done is right."

The new chips are 64 bit, will offer clock speeds of up to 2GHz, have front side busses of up to 1.3Ghz, two 64KB L1 caches and a 1MB L2 cache. Via’s especially proud of its floating point unit performance, which it says is the world’s fastest, and its "aggressive" power management features.

They don’t replace the C7 series, however, and are pin-compatible with them. In effect, C7 chips become a lower-performing budget model at the foot of the refreshed lineup. Manufacturers will be able to use both without retooling factories or redesigning their existing Via-based products.

In the last few years, chip giants Intel and AMD have moved in on the turf Via’s been tending for over a decade, thanks to the rise of tiny computers and little corresponding progress in battery technology. Ultramobile PCs and similar handhelds often can’t run for more than a few hours in real-world use, and everyone in the industry wants to make the most power-sipping chips possible.

Henry said that Via’s successes in making such chips and the motherboards that house them — recent customers include Samsung, OQO, WiBrain, Everex, Packard Bell and others — shows that it’s in the right place.

Richard Brown, Via’s director of international marketing, said that while it’s much smaller than its rivals, this gives is more agility and responsiveness in the marketplace.

"It’s a major achievement when you think of the thousands of people who work at Intel and at AMD."

Added Henry: "Development cost matters, and our development costs are low."

If you are going to spend US$399 for an Apple iPhone there is probably a good chance that you are going to use it to store your “life” on it. That means all of your contacts, pictures, email, Internet favorites, music and movies. It’s for this reason you would probably be pretty upset if you lost all of this data because your iPhone was damaged. Since the iPhone is a mobile device there is probably a good chance there is going to be at least a few people who will have to deal with a damaged iPhone which still contains data they want access to.

Luckily, iPhone users can now call DriveSavers if they get into that situation. DriveSavers has made a name for itself in the recovery of data from a number of hard drives which have been through all sorts of disasters. Those disasters include man made ones such as accidentally deleting a file. Now they are offering those same services to iPhone users.

The good news is that the iPhone contains a solid state drive (SSD) which means there are less moving parts and the drive is more resistant to shock. Still, there may be a time where something happens, even if that something is caused by you, and you need something equivalent to a time machine to get your data back safe and sound. DriveSavers will be happy to help so now iPhone users can store their data in peace knowing there is a 911 number they can call in the form of DriveSavers.

According to the company, the range for a successful recovery on the 5-7 business day turnaround is $500-$1,400. The final price varies based on time and quality of the recovery. Users can call for free estimates at 1-800-440-1904.

Read more from the DriveSavers press release.

Three MacBook Air reviews are in from USA Today, Newsweek and the WSJ. The first two reviews are both fairly positive, with caveats, but the WSJ’s reads slightly less so. Lets begin.

USA Today: USA Today’s Ed Baig summarizes with this verdict: “Given the compromises, I don’t expect anyone to use Air as their only computer. But it is a yummy machine for people who spend a lot of time traveling.” Going more in depth, he lauds the Air’s thinness, and revels at the little things like the magnetic latch and the backlit LED display. The worst part? He got more than an hour less than Apple’s rated battery life.

Baig also notes that this is the weakest Core 2 Duo in the entire Mac lineup, which means you won’t be using this for video editing. He knocks points off for the sacrifices, such as the internal optical drive, the scant 80GB hard disk space, the one USB port, lack of FireWire, and the average battery life. Apple rated it at 5 hours, but he only got three hours and 40 minutes just surfing the web, using Remote Disc and writing. It only lasted two hours and 40 minutes when watching a movie. Verdict: Not for everyone (mostly travelers), and definitely not a main computer. [USA Today]

Newsweek: Steven Levy at Newsweek compares the Macbook Air’s thinness to ritualistic circumcision, noting that they sliced off just enough to make it meaty, yet super thin. Thin enough for him to spend a good third of his review saying how thin it is, and how it’s so great on a lap, on a Starbucks’ table, on a conference table, and on an airplane seatback tray. He then decries the obvious lack of features we’ve been talking about since we heard about the Air: lack of user-replaceable battery, the one USB port, no optical drive, blah blah blah.

It essentially reads like Levy reviewed off the spec sheet, and doesn’t have many tales of his first-hand experience with such topics as how snappy the sluggish processor is or how convenient (or inconvenient) using the Remote Disc is (he does note that you have to lower your Firewall to its lowest setting to allow easier configuration). Verdict: Not much of one, but what he does have agrees with Baig: it’s thin and even though Apple’s removed much of its innards, “the things that Apple left on were the ingredients for a quality computer.” Also, he spends much of the review talking in a roundabout way about penises, so it’s worth a read just for that. [Newsweek]

Wall Street Journal: Mossberg from the big J also loves the svelteness, owning up to his own Contact moment by saying that “it’s impossible to convey in words just how pleasing and surprising this computer feels in the hand.” Of course, he hates the non-removable battery, the 1 USB port, the fact that you can’t put a bigger hard drive in there and the lack of an optical drive.

In his own tests, he says the machine was “speedy” and the keyboard and screen were a “pleasure to use”. His own battery tests gave him three hours and 24 minutes with Wi-Fi on and playing music nonstop. He theorizes that you could possibly get 4 hours and 30 minutes without playing music and just working normally, bug Baig’s own test disproves that. Verdict: Great if you love thinness or a full-sized screen and keyboard on a “subnotebook”, but he “can’t recommend it for all.” [AllThingsD]

In case you haven’t noticed yet, there’s an eject button at the top right corner of the MacBook Air keyboard. There’s no disc drive, but you push it, something pops out. Somewhere. Click. Schwing. Poop. Some people say this key ejects the optional SuperDrive, but after countless—or maybe just three—days of in-deep investigation in cocktail bars and going through the trashcans outside Jonathan Ive’s house, we’ve compiled a list of potential actions:

• Ejects random F-15 Eagle National Guard pilot currently flying over the US.
• Activates road speed bump.
• Launches Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles while playing War Games with demented mainframes.
• Don’t make war, make love and launch giant dildos instead. (NSFW)
• Fires up the farter-burner in jet-propelled toilet.
• Ejects Blu-ray and HD DVD players and turn TVs off at boring consumer electronics conventions.
• Launches space fighters in the middle of the desert. Then press again to see them self-destruct mid-flight.
• Kicks bad Imperial fake rock bands off the stage.
• Remotely makes Steve Jobs said “Boom!” at will during keynotes and events.
• Launches squirrels into oblivion.
• Activates self-destruction function in Manila envelope.
• Triggers portable secret RDF unit, making everyone 1.5 miles around you to fall in love and go to the store to buy one.
• Provokes fanboy orgasm. (NSFW)
• Provokes Slut Machine an orgasm. (NSFW)
• Provokes Slut Machine’s fanboys an orgasm. (NSFW)
• Forces internal battery to self-destruct, eliminating the need to change it.

The SuperDrive eject thing? It’s just a smoke screen I tell you, a smoke screen! So there you go, another rumor debunked. Got any other action? Post it in the comments. [Gizmodo Macbook Air coverage]