Because details matter.
Once again, I avoided CES this year. In principle, I love CES, but it’s expensive and difficult to get around Vegas during the event. Since I’m not officially covering it, I simply gather the cool stuff from my favorite blogs.
Here’s what I found interesting this year.
I love my Apple TV. Not just because of the video it allows me to watch, but the music it lets me play from our iPhones or Macs using Airplay.
I really want whole-house audio (a la Sonos, without the ridiculous cost) and Apple's Airplay can help me do that.
I have a bunch of high-quality stereo speakers from a variety of sources (PC speakers, home stereos, etc.) that I can place all over my house, but the only way that I can get whole-house audio is to purchase and install an Apple TV in every room while outputting audio to each via the TOS (optical) audio connector on the Apple TV.
But I really don't want to spend $99 per room to make this happen - plus an additional $30 for a TOSLink adapter for each set of these analog speakers.
I got to thinking: how small can Airplay device really get? Maybe someone makes one?
So, I started trawling the Interwebs and here's what I found: nothing. (At least as far as Airplay goes.)
What I did find was a product in the form factor that I wanted, but one that uses Bluetooth instead of Airplay.
It's called the WaveJamr from RadTech.
In 1998, my wife bought me a Swatch Beat watch. I think she heard me mention it after reading about it in Wired magazine and she got it for me as a gift.
Swatch, along with the endorsement of Nicholas Negroponte, who was then the Director of the MIT Media Lab, proposed a Universal Internet Time known as the .Beat.
It works like this: A day is divided into 1000 ".beats". So, one Swatch ".beat" is equivalent to 1 Minute 26.4 Seconds.
You set your watch according to Biel Meantime (BMT). (In a classic marketing move, Biel, Switzerland is the corporate headquarters of Swatch.)
So, when you want to schedule a phone call with someone across the world, you don't have to figure out time zones - you simply indicate that the meeting should take place @xxx .beats.
A solar charger is a convenient, eco-friendly way to charge your gear on the go but is typically required to rest on a flat surface in the sun in order to work properly. The folks at Quirky have figured out how to fix that.
Look at this beautiful iPhone 4 leather wallet. Just look at.
Let me tell you why I got one.
Contribute $20 or more to this Kickstarter project and receive The Glif as soon as they're available (includes U.S. shipping!). Video below. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danprovost/glif-iphone-4-tripod-mount-and-stand/widget/card.js Glif Montage from Glif on Vimeo.
Infographic: notquitewrong.com/rosscottinc [The System]
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