Ged Carroll

Category: gadget | 小工具 | 가제트 | ガジェット

What constitutes a gadget? The dictionary definition would be a small mechanical or electronic device or tool, especially an ingenious or novel one.

When I started writing this blog the gadget section focused on personal digital assistants such as the Palm PDA and Sony’s Clie devices. Or the Anoto digital pen that allowed you to record digitally what had been written on a specially marked out paper page, giving the best of both experiences.

Some of the ideas I shared weren’t so small like a Panasonic sleeping room for sleep starved, but well heeled Japanese.

When cutting edge technology failed me, I periodically went back to older technology such as the Nokia 8850 cellphone or my love of the Nokia E90 Communicator.

I also started looking back to discontinued products like the Sony Walkman WM-D6C Pro, one of the best cassette decks ever made of any size. I knew people who used it in their hi-fi systems as well as for portable audio.

Some of the technology that I looked at were products that marked a particular point in my life such as my college days with the Apple StyleWriter II. While my college peers were worried about getting on laser printers to submit assignments, I had a stack of cartridges cotton buds and isopropyl alcohol to deal with any non catastrophic printer issues and so could print during the evening in the comfort of my lodgings.

Alongside the demise in prominence of the gadget, there has been a rise in the trend of everyday carry or EDC.

  • Power consumption + more

    Power consumption

    Daring Fireball: Safari vs. Chrome: Power Consumption – interesting article power consumption. Power consumption has come a long way, when I got my first laptop, an old Apple PowerBook 165, it would last me a couple of hours in the university library if I wasn’t able to find a power outlet.

    With the first Intel powered MacBook Pro was just about able to last a days worth of note taking at a conference if I was careful. The jump between these two machines power consumption was hardware. It is interesting how Apple Safari is now focusing on software performance to effect a positive difference in power consumption.

    Consumer behaviour

    social@Ogilvy | Social data accuracy on LinkedIn and Facebook – interesting study but context also matters

    Finance

    China considers limiting third party online payments-Shanghai Daily – presumably the Chinese government feels that limiting third party online payments has anti corruption and tax dodging benefits. It would also be a good why of preventing capital flight out of China via third party online payments. More finance related content here.

    Gadgets

    Samsung confirms its next Gear smartwatch will feature a rotating bezel for zooming, controlling apps | VentureBeat – interesting interface change

    Samsung plans to ‘adjust’ Galaxy S6 and S6 edge pricing in response to poor quarterly earnings | VentureBeat – interesting that Edge is thrown in the mix. Has it really gone from under supply to discounting in one quarter

    How to

    How to make someone unfollow you on Twitter | Gadgette – genius. Soft blocking is capitalising on how blocking forces someone to unfollow you. It doesn’t reinstate them as a follower when you unblock them

    Luxury

    brandchannel: Hermès, Bagged by PETA, Sees Jane Birkin Protest Her Namesake Bag – will people buying the Hermes Birkin actually care?

    straight from the track to the road, sin automotive sets R1 RS into production – if I was 14, I would have had a poster of this on my wall, now it feels incongruous on the road

    Media

    The Financial Times deal is part of a more global stance for Nikkei—and for Japan | Quartz – nice article that puts the Nikkei deal into a broader perspective

    Q. and A.: Ma Xue on Why China Has Embraced Korean TV – The New York Times – interesting hypothesis that the Chinese government stepped in to prevent overinflation of foreign entertainment licence prices

    Online

    Flickr Bringing Back Pro: Pay to Get Badge, Analytics, and No Ads – interesting moves and some UI tweaks

    Google search now lets you avoid lines by showing the busiest times at millions of places and businesses – intersting data to build a programmable world

    Security

    Here’s What’s Next for the Future of Amphibious Warfare | VICE News – reminds me of the aircraft carrier sprawl in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. In this novel, refugee rafts and ships were secured to an aircraft carrier to cross the Pacific to the US. This seems to be similar to the seabasing model articulated as the future of amphibious warfare. My big question (admittedly based on watching saving Private Ryan etc as my only source of reference) is would this model present too large a target for defence forces? What’s the advantage of this approach to amphibious warfare?

  • Index funds + more things

    Index funds may be conspiring against the very same investors who fund them | Quartz – interesting analysis on index funds, surely this would also be the issue with ‘shareholder value’ in general?

    Oracle’s cloud sales – Business Insider – short term numbers for long term losses

    Shanghai Street View: Wealth Explosion – high street wealth management products, explains a lot. This could all go wrong and explains China’s regulations against shadow banking. The problem is a lack of supply for Chinese consumers to invest in. Savings accounts give poor returns, the stare market is way oversubscribed

    Exclusive: Amazon planning drive-up grocery stores with first coming to Sunnyvale — sources – Silicon Valley Business Journal – it feels like a retrogressive move to me. I think of drive-thrus as being representative of 20th century America. The drive-in cinema, the drive-thru/drive-in fast food restaurant a la McDonalds or American Graffiti

    What Really Killed Homejoy? It Couldn’t Hold On To Its Customers | Forbes – which sounds very dot com in its nature

    Apple Watch to Be Sold at Best Buy – Digits – WSJ – interesting how this doesn’t fit with their initial luxury positioning

    Nike, Apple agree to $2.4M settlement in suit over false FuelBand claims, Apple to pay nothing – I guess tis scuppers Nike’s wearable ambitions and possibly Fuel being part of a wearable eco-system. More related posts here.

    If what you say is useful, people will pass it on | SiliconAngle – if they see it at the right time…

    Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Update on the Autocomplete API | Google Webmaster Central Blog – basically it was a drain on resources that didn’t provide Google with useful data

    Firefox is getting audio indicators to show noisy tabs, and will let you mute them | VentureBeat | Dev | by Emil Protalinski – brilliant for them auto playing videos in my RSS feeds

  • Hacknet + more things

    Hacknet

    Some Australian developers have made an immersive game about hacking that will be distributed on Steam when released. It’s called Hacknet and here’s the trailer.