Tag Archives: ipod

Social, Technology

Printable Batteries for CERN monitored by Nissan – Nerban’s week in tech Aug 09

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Designed by jjar01

Nerban’s week in tech August 2009

Some items from the world wide web concerning technology and our social habits.

Printable Batteries Should Arrive Next Year

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/08/09/0049214/Printable-Batteries-Should-Arrive-Next-Year
– this will make those annoying greeting cards with the loud sounds and bad 80’s music to last even longer

Toshiba signs up for Blu-ray

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10306235-93.html
– this must be a big blow to Toshiba’s psyce; if you didn’t know, Toshiba was behind the now defunct HD-DVD format which went head-to-head with Sony’s Blu-Ray format … of course, Blu-Ray won the format in 2008, and takes Toshiba well over a year to start producing compatible DVD players.

CERN’s collider to get ’safe’ start in November

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10305480-76.html
– the end of the world is imminent … beginning in November when Scientists will engulf the world with their particle collider

Nissan will sell you its new electric car early — but you have to agree to be monitored.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20090806/CARNEWS/908069996
– An electric car that you buy, but that will be watched

No more perks: Coffee shops pull the plug on laptop users

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124950421033208823.html
– Those cheap fake wannabee laptop users in the coffee shops that take up wi-fi and don’t buy scones

Apple tried to silence owner of exploding iPod with gagging order

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article6736587.ece
– Apple getting their ‘gangsta on’ over their most explosive iPod ever

.:: LiBM ::.

Social, Technology

Defining an Era or Error: The Walkman

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Defining an Era or Error: The Walkman

A look at the first portable music device

The Walkman was an essential item to have growing up in the 80’s and 90’s; it was today’s equivalent to the iPod. The Walkman allowed one to bring their music with them in a handy portable device, as the popular format of the day was the tape cassette. The tape cassette was, and still stands as a unique format that allows for easy recording and playback. Think about it, to record music to a CD, you got to start your computer, load CD Burning program, wait for it to write – for a tape cassette, just put it into the tape player, connect to an input source, and hit record. Voila, you have an instant portable piece of music. I think that the tape cassette will be around for a few more decades as it is still useful, and since car manufacturers have only stopped building tape decks from around 2005, they will still be relevant.

A bit of history for the Father of the ‘iPod’:

Walkman is Sony’s portable audio cassette player brand, now used to market its portable audio and video players. The original Walkman introduced a change in music listening habits, allowing people to carry music with them. The device was built in 1978 by audio division engineer Nobutoshi Kihara for Sony co-chairman Morita, who wanted to be able to listen to operas during his frequent transpacific plane trips. The original Walkman was marketed in 1979 as the Walkman in Japan, the Soundabout in many other countries including the US, Freestyle in Sweden and the Stowaway in the UK.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkman

Sony was the obvious pioneer for the portable digital music player, and I believe the brand name (Walkman) still lives on in Sony’s line of digital music players (competing with the iPod) and their partnership with Ericsson Mobility (bringing the Sony Ericsson Walkman phone). But Sony is far, far, far behind Apple’s iPod as they got on the digital music player bandwagon too late – if Sony had marketed their iconic Walkman brand as a digital music device a bit earlier, they could have maybe impacted the affect of the iPod, and garnered a greater share of the billion dollar digital music industry that Apple dominates.


I still have my Walkman, and it still works, but I mess with the iPod Touch … sorry Sony!  Another fail – as Sony is currently losing a market that they CREATED.

.:: LiBM ::.

Logic, Social, Technology

tan(009) – Broken earphones cost 5 cents in exams

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Tangent 009 – 5 Cents a bag, phones in exams, earphones

5 Cents a bag

Before, it used to be certain grocery stores that would charge you 5 cents per bag; the tradeoff was that the grocery store offered lower prices and didn’t invest in things like food sampling, bagging your groceries, and the like. Now, all commercial stores imaginable from grocery to retail, now have to charge 5 cents per bag. It is really starting to become a nuisance as I will go to one of my regular stores, shop, and then get shocked when the cashier asks me if I want bags – then I do the usual, ‘Oh yeah, I forgot’ thing, and privately cuss to myself that this is asinine.

Phones in Exams

I am sure that everyone can relate to an exam situation in school where the prof said “everyone turn off or silence your phone”, and half-way through the exam, a loud annoying polyphonic sound emits from some student. The student tries to coyly turn it off, but it never works, and the class is disrupted. Whenever I go into class, exam or not, I have the common sense to say to myself, “ok, its time to turn off or put the phone on vibrate”. I don’t understand how other people can simply forget this common act of courtesy and decency. You have to be an idiot or a moron to not have the foresight that your phone might ring in class, and it would be wise to check before you enter class. Simple respect for the prof and your classmates, you lame.

Earphones

The earphones for your iPod/mp3 player will never function properly for more than 1 year; I think there is an exact science to it. Earphones are designed to only last a few months before one side of the earphones ceases to work properly – one side may not produce sound at all, or it may produce a reduced sound. I have had walkmans, Discmans, various iPods, and over time the earphones will crap out. Always. I never thought of investing in expensive earphones, but I may just have to pay the price to enjoy ‘ear to ear’ continuous sound.

.:: LiBM ::.