Tag Archives: Geek Toys

Microsoft Surface Computing

Posted on by
Reply

Straight out of the movie “Minority Report” comes Microsoft Surface Computing. We first saw this about 2 years ago but for those of you who haven’t seen this yet check out this video.

Now this you have to admit is pretty sweet. Imagine being able to just drag and drop the plan you want on your new Android phone at the store.

Now your probably asking well, they were talking as early as ’07 but we still haven’t seen em in stores yet. Thats probably because of the $12,500 Per table cost on it. Quite frankly, until the price comes down, you wont be seeing in your local stores. However there are some higher end places that are starting to carry them. At Barclay’s bank, your paper work to fill out a new account will be done on the surface computer. I personally think this technology is rockin, but the price tag is way too prohibitive. Once the price comes down it will be seen out in public. In fact for those of us Microsoft Certified guys, they are already offering a Partner program specifically for the Surface Computer. I think I’ll wait to jump all over that, but in the future who knows.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Netflix to stream to WII

Posted on by
Reply

It has been confirmed by Netflix that they will now be streaming their videos to the Nintendo Wii. Wii owners who have a broadband connection and a Netflix subscription that costs at least $9 a month will be able to watch those programs with no extra charge. Nintendo and Netflix, wouldn’t give an exact launch date for the service but expect the product to be ready soon. Thats pretty sweet, except that the Wii isn’t HD therefore, the streams won’t be. The PS3 is already streaming Video with Netflix, and yes it is HD. Xbox360 players can also use the streaming service, but they must be Xbox “Gold” customers.

You can see where this is going, the Roku Netflix player is pretty awesome.

The Roku Netflix Player

Goodbye Movie Stores!

I think the days of the movie store like Family Video, Movie Stop, and Blockbuster (R.I.P), have seen their final days. Even purchasing films are going to become a thing of the past, Imagine the Roku player with a 1TB Hard drive in it. No more having to worry about scratched up DVD’s or Blueray’s. If you can just store the video inside the movie library and not have to fiddle around finding the disk and putting it in the player, thats pretty cool.

In reality, I don’t thing Netflix Streaming to the Wii, will mean all that much. But I think that this is just another step down the path.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Whats the deal with google wave?

Posted on by
Reply

Google Wave is Google’s Awesome new collaboration tool. For those who haven’t seen it or don’t have a google wave account here is a LONG video about it.

Ok, so now that you know what google wave is, and I am pretty sure your like me and thinking THIS THING ROCKS!

1. Look at the interface. It’s cool, beautiful and pretty easy to use.

Google Wave's Cool Interface

2. This thing is quick. You have a constant connection to the server and it responds seamlessly.

3. The widgets for the tool are the coolest part. With that being said though, they really need to make a “Widget Dock” of some sorts. Its really cool being able to put all the widgets in, but sucks having to go get the URL from the store then drag the link all the way back to the conversation and opening up the widget tool and pasting that inside it. Its just too many steps. If they had some way to save your favorite widgets in a drop down and you could pull them whenever you wanted it would be so much more convenient. Most people wont adopt something that’s not convenient, I guess users have just become lazy.

I was suprised to see it wasnt a native app on the Droid, but I guess its a little early for that. A stand alone google wave “Outlook Style” desktop app would be cool to see to.

I do honestly thing they are on the right path though. If everything keeps on the track its going this may one day replace email.

Here are some other resources to check out in regards to Google Wave!
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]