Best Damn Tech Show, Period.

Check out this awesome intereview with the Vatican’s Web Mistress. Is that dirty to call her a mistress? Oy vei. Here’s the Nun who handles the Vatican’s web stuff.

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As I was surfing the net this week I came across Vox. I love community sites, so I thought I would check this one out a little deeper. TheHome page is quite eye catching and very straight forward. I decided to give it a go and see how it compared to other community site I have used (and I have used a lot!!!). The sign up process was pretty standard, it didn’t take long either which is good, because if you are like me, then there is nothing worse than a dragged out sign up process, which can almost put you off using the site in the first place. Keep it simple! Anyway, once I got past sign up, I decided to check out it’s features.

One of the big plus points to Vox is that it works with flickr, which is a great choice due to the number of people that use Flickr these days. It saved me an enormous amount of time uploading my pics again, I just browsed my flickr and sent then to my Vox account, easy! You can pretty much do anything to your blog, from choosing/making a funky design to Uploading Video. They also have the unusual features of being able to upload books and Collections (eg.travel boos etc and websites you have collected for a vacation). You can add people to your neighborhood (just like adding friends) and you can keep an eye on their new posts etc.

Overall, I think Vox is a great all round community, it will certainly meet most peoples needs and it’s growing pretty fast. Check it out… You might be surprised

_Leila

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http://macenstein.com/default/archives/516

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We’ve talked about AdaptiveBlue’s BlueOrganizer for some time now. I caught them out at DEMOfall last year, and their Firefox/Flock extension is so full of features, it’s impossible to talk about them all here. You really have to give it a try.

At its simplest, BlueOrganizer allows you to bookmark/rate/share things online. Podcasts, Movies or CD’s on Amazon, or websites. Basically everything on the net becomes an item that you can organize and share. One great application is to create a wish list. When you add an item, you can say that you “want it”, and now with the new upgrade, you can easily create a flash widget to put on your MySpace or Blog and allow people to click them and such.

Seems pretty simple eh? Well there’s more to it. Right click on any link to bring up the “BlueMenu” which lets you dig further into a subject or item.

Seriously, you really just have to give it a try to see all of the features. Everything is gathered offline so you can track your stuff even when you have no interwebs.

Check it out and share your widgets with us:

http://www.adaptiveblue.com/

technorati tags:blueorganizer, adaptiveblue

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So Nintendo released the Wii and so far it has been a great success! I had the privilege to try out the Wii when I went to Opera HQ last week. I played some games and used the Wii browser (powered by Opera Software). If I was honest, it took some getting used to! I’m not used to so much motion when playing a video game and I was quite concious of what an idiot I looked! It was obvious though that the people at the Opera offices had got used to the commotion as they didn’t seem to even notice.

Once I had worn myself out, I moved on to the browser. Now this I liked! It would be a lot easier if there was some kind of keyboard hardware as opposed to the on-screen keyboard though. I have never been a fan of on-screen keyboards on devices, however on gaming machines such as the DS Lite, there isn’t much choice and you do eventually get used to using them.

The Browser itself is surprisingly advanced. There isn’t a great deal that’s different from using a normal browser. It has an impressive zoom in, zoom out feature which I had a lot of fun with. The Wii browser also supports flash, Ajax and CSS.

You can currently use the free beta until the endof June 2007, the final version should be available at the end of March 2007. After June 2007, the price will be 500 Wii Points (about $5).

_Leila

technorati tags:wii, opera, nintendo, leila

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Photowalking is a new thing. A bunch of photo lovin’ geeks get together, walk around, talk, and shoot photos. I love it and I want to do one. Maybe I can get a Seattle Photowalk going. Until then, check out Scoble Show with Thomas Hawk.

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Ok, seriously. I was cautious about the Nintendo Wii. I thought, “Oh, just a fad”, “Just another video game console”. Boy was I wrong.

I used to be a heavy heavy gamer. I’m talking hours and hours of Madden. I’m talking hours and hours of Castlevania. I always wanted to be a video game developer, that was my dream. Eventually, I got so busy that I didn’t have time to enjoy video games anymore, didn’t have the time to spend on them. A few years ago I bought an Atari 2600 (jr edition, just like I had when I was a kid). I feverishly bought every Atari game I could. The old games were awesome, they were fun, and they were simple. Surely, no video game system could ever replicate that experience. Wrong again.

The Nintendo Wii is revolutionary. The graphics aren’t astounding, they’re nothing that makes you drop your jaw. But the gaming experience itself? Amazing. I broke down and got a Wii on Saturday. I found someone here in Seattle on Craigslist selling one. Did I overpay? Sure. But I had heard so many conflicting stories about the Wii, I had to try it for myself. Alisa was very supportive as I went back on forth with “To Wii or Not to Wii”. Finally, she just said “Get it already!!!!” So I did.

Wii Sports could be the only game I ever get and I would be happy. Addictive? Yes. Fun? Oh Yeah. Is my arm sore? Fuck yeah. Bowling is beyond addictive. I suck at Golf, but it’s fun as hell. On Saturday we played for 6 hours, Sunday 5 more hours. The following video will scare you. But if you have a Wii, you’ll understand. More video reviews later.

technorati tags:wii, nintendo

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The much anticipated iphone was unveiled earlier this month at the MacWorld Expo in San Fransisco. Currently restricted to Cingular customers only, the iphone is proving to be extremely popular and has left a lot of people on other networks disappointed. But what is it about the the iphone that’s really got people counting down the days, hours and minutes to it’s release.

After revolutionising how we listen to music, Apple have taken it one step further and have created a phone of the future. The iPhone combines quad band mobile phone technology,  widescreen ipod with touch screen controls and a “breakthrough” internet communications device.

Measuring  115 x 61 x11.6mm, the phone is slim, sleek and bursting with technology! Connection is real easy with this phone. For me, Bluetooth is essential so I can send my pictures to my laptop easily and quickly. But it also comes with wi-fi and EDGE , so there are plenty of choices. The iPhone  also boasts a desktop class email allowing you to keep in touch on the move, web browser for quality mobile internet and you’ll never get lost with Google maps which is almost a must on most phones in today’s market. It really is the ideal phone for keeping in touch and staying connected.

If that wasn’t enough for you, the widescreen iPod might attract you. With touch screen controls and a choice of 4 or 8 gig of store, you can carry your entire music collection in your phone , in your pocket. I don’t know about any other girls out there, but it definitely saves on the handbag space! The iPhone is also compatible with iPod accessories such as car docking stations and speakers, which means no need to rush out and upgrade your current iPod accessories.

Other features include a 2 mega-pixel camera, a minimum requirement in my opinion. Phone photography has come along way in the past year or two and anything less would be a major disappointment. The Multi touch display with qwerty keyboard is an interesting choice – I can’t comment on the usability of this, but being the first of it’s kind, I’m sure it would take some getting used to. Touch screens seem to be the way of the future and I am sure other companies will follow suit. Time to start practising the tapping. The iPhone also comes with an optimized MAC OS X operating system, pdf viewer and widgets (mini applications).

Sounds great right?  Maybe… but as with all technology, it has it’s drawbacks. As I mentioned before, the iPhone is only available on the Cingular network and this will be the case for the next two years. Bad news for the games also, currently, the iPhone doesn’t come with any games. I would expect this to change fairly quickly though as the current iPods come with standard games. Are you one of those people who likes to catch embarrassing moments on video? Well you may have to wait for a while. The iPhone only takes still pictures at the moment. I don’t think it will be long before they upgrade the camera to include the video feature though, as most standard camera phones do. As there is no video, there is also no 3G technology at the moment either.  One frequently highlighted drawback is that the wi-fi and Bluetooth do not have syncing capabilities with calendars or email, which may prove to be a problem for the busy exec. For the moment, if you want to have your appointments on your iPhone and computer, it will be a case of entering the details twice over.

But overall, the iPhone seems to be a big hit. I am certainly looking forward to it’s release and I am sure sales will speak for themselves. Priced at about the $500 -$600 mark (depending on how much store you choose), they aren’t cheap, but you will certainly be the envy of all your friends.

Steve Jobs’ Apple iPhone has nothing on the Best Damn Phone.

Can’t wait to get your iPhone? No worries, get the Best Damn Phone and start showing off to your friends and colleagues.

digg it

technorati tags:iphone, iphonekiller, apple, macworld, stevejobs, bestdamntech, bdtsp, bestdamnphone

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The man is brilliant.  His photography cannot be beaten.  The Best Damn Tech Show bows down to you Mr. Hawk.

Check out the Babes of CES 2007 Gallery.

technorati tags:babes, ces, thomashawk, zooomr, bestdamntech

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