Apple iPhone - makes everything else look rubbish!

This makes all other mobile devices look outdated! It's a wide-screen video ipod, phone and internet tablet all in one. Everyone is going to want one:













Apple iPhone!

"Everybody hates their phone, and that's not a good thing. And there's an opportunity there." - Jobs told Time

Its got a wide-screen touch screen, runs a version of OSX, has a great interface, full version of the safari browser, 8GB flash memory, iTunes and other data syncing, automatic landscape/portrait switching via an accelerometer, is a quad band GSM/EDGE smartphone with speaker, has a 2MP camera, has Wi-Fi and bluetooth and push IMAP email.

Battery life: 5 hours of talk time, video, and browsing. 16 hours of audio playback.

Cost: $600 with 2 year contract. Shipping in June in the US and Q4 in Europe.

Maybe 3G, twin batteries, video out, video capture, 30gb hard drives, gps, replaceable battery, support for 3rd party software and flash cards will be added for version 2, 3 or 4 ?

Video:
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/

More info:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/
engadget.com
more pics
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2370
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2371
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1575410,00.html
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/09/some-hands-on-time-with-the-iphone/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX1Lz8PDgg8

Laptop Laser Engraving

Laser engraving of images on laptops:

Kevin Rose using an engraved laptop on Diggnation:


The laptop getting engraved:


click above for a larger image

He and Fried hope there will be solid demand for the company's services in New York, particularly because the laser-etching machinery, a 35-watt machine from Epilog Laser, runs about $15,000.

more info:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ldandersen/sets/72157594384643188/
http://www.epiloglaser.com/
http://www.trotec.net/
http://www.identify.co.uk/level3_lasers.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm89tfprStE
makezine.com
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/12/how_its_made_laser_etching_pow.html
http://www.adafruit.com/laser/
http://dev.freeverse.com/monkeyblog/archives/2006/12/lasing_around.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-6143072.html
http://www.etchamac.com/
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/laptop/laser-etching-a-powerbook-197202.php
more laser etching pics on flickr
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/10/24/moto_miami_ink_razr/
http://www.laserdevils.com/ipod_engraving.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_engraving

Mac Mini - The Best Carputer ?

The wikipedia definition of the carputer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carputer



Every normal person wants a full computer built into their car, correct?
You want to play CDs, DVDs, MP3s and surf the web. You want a small box with a simple touch screen interface, a GUI that looks good on a small screen, remote control, gps satnav, bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections. You want all this for around £500. It looks like the intel mac mini with built-in frontrow software may fit the bill perfectly:

With the introduction of Apple's Mac mini, a whole new realm of inexpensive in-car computing and entertainment is now possible. The small form factor of the Mac mini makes it a perfect solution for installation in areas with limited space - like a car. The robust feature set of the Mac mini, along with the multi-media power of Mac OS X, makes for an excellent platform to create a complete mobile media system. - macvroom.com

Mac Mini:
http://www.apple.com/macmini/
Apple Frontrow and remote:
http://www.apple.com/imac/frontrow.html
OSX Dashboard Widgets:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard/
mac gps satnav software:
http://www.routebuddy.com/
Garmin bluetooth GPS revceiver:
http://www.garmin.com/products/gps10/
controllers:
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate/
http://www.apple.com/keyboard/
screen:
http://www.xenarc.com/product/700ts.html

More info and build instructions:
http://gthing.net/carputer-5-final/

Mac your ride:
http://www.macvroom.com/

more mac mini installations:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zapwizard/sets/72057594054134962/show/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/contentrobot/sets/72057594104561770/show/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37009071@N00/sets/1645157/show/

As a comparison this windows based carputer unit just looks nasty. I'm no mac fanboy but Windows XP does not 'pimp' anything:


However the main advantage of the mac mini over the above monstrosity is that when you get bored of having a carputer you can just pull it out and use it as a normal desktop machine.

I'm a MAC... and I'm a PC

I love hating on Mac's and Mac users. However what few people seem to be talking about on the PC vs Mac front is that new Macs with intel core duo cpu's and Nvidia or ATI graphics ARE PC's ! Yes Macs ARE PC's.

Look, here is half-life2 running on windows XP booted on an iMac with ATI X1600 graphics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v6knSCXMQM

And here is Windows XP running inside Apple OSX using the new 'parallels' emulator (Parallels on intel Macs runs windows much faster than emulators on G3,G4 and G5 Macs):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI33A76n4Ok


These aren't hacks. The 'bootcamp' software that boots windows on macs will be built into the next version of OSX. At the moment you have to download it from Apple here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

The Parallels emulator can be download here for £40:
http://www.parallels.com/