Shift
As I watched Laura Bush, the first lady of our nation, introduce President Bush's remarks to the Republican Convention via satellite on Tuesday night, all I could think was, "Man, the Republicans are really into blurry flags this year."...
POSTED Thursday, September 4, 2008
Internet radio — remember that? It's still around, and after years of being an also-ran in the digital-media arena, it's recently started to offer some services worth listening to and could, God willing, completely reinvigorate the music industry. That...
POSTED Thursday, August 28, 2008
As we smoothly segue from a carefully choreographed sports convention to carefully choreographed political conventions, we stop examining the medal count and start examining the political polls. As red- and blue-staters do, Obamaniacs are having bleeding-heart palpitations and McCainiacs...
POSTED Thursday, August 21, 2008
When we reported last week about how high-tech this year's Olympic broadcasting would be, we didn't imagine that a Chinese newspaper would uncover the fact that some of the fireworks in the opening ceremonies were actually CGI animation. A...
POSTED Thursday, August 14, 2008
Oscar Pistorius isn't competing in this year's Olympics, and that's a good thing. In case you missed it, Pistorius is the double-amputee sprinter who occasionally has carbon-fiber artificial limbs stand in for his missing lower legs. His amazing Cheetah...
POSTED Thursday, August 7, 2008
Who wouldn’t like the idea of a fuel cell car running on clean, pure hydrogen, the universe’s most plentiful element? Its byproduct is sparkling, drinkable water, with none of that pesky pollution spewing out the tailpipe. And then if...
POSTED Thursday, July 31, 2008
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to witness the beginning of the end of MP3 domination as we know it. Yes, it was surprising to me, too… at last count, I had 3,763 songs in the MP3 format across...
POSTED Thursday, July 24, 2008
It's iPhone 3G + 1 week and I have PPD — post-party depression. I feel as if it's the day after a three-day dorm party except without the cleanup responsibilities, vise-like hangover with residual nausea and vague memories of...
POSTED Thursday, July 17, 2008
Roger Clemens and steroids allegations. Larry Craig and his Minneapolis men's room rendezvous. R. Kelly and child pornography. It doesn't matter whether or not the charges are true. It doesn't matter the degree to which the charges are true....
POSTED Friday, July 11, 2008
Telecommuting. It’s just a bunch a lazy ne’er-do-wells hanging around the house in their pajamas, soaking up a paycheck and doing nothing, right? Why should they get to do their work at home, relaxing in that favorite chair, while...
POSTED Thursday, July 10, 2008
The concern that there may be a connection between cellphones and cancer has been around for years — the first lawsuits that tried to make the connection were filed in the mid-1990s. There are many studies out there that...
POSTED Thursday, July 3, 2008
One of the most annoying things about the upcoming iPhone 3G is that its Bluetooth abilities are remarkably primitive. Like the previous model, Apple gave it only enough Bluetooth to allow it to pair with a wireless earpiece —...
POSTED Thursday, June 26, 2008
With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy … You know you're middle-aged when you're 10 years older than retiring pro athletes. You know you're middle-aged when you don't recognize a single artist name in the Billboard Top 10 except Madonna. You...
POSTED Thursday, June 19, 2008
Big media doesn’t want you to download their stuff. I should know, because for the past two months, I’ve abandoned DVD and Blu-ray discs, and tossed my cable box out the window. I was trying to see if big...
POSTED Thursday, June 12, 2008
As Steve Jobs' keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference droned on and on into its second hour, highlighting the virtues of various iPhone applications with silly names like Loopt and Enigmo, I started to doubt whether he was going...
POSTED Monday, June 9, 2008
Michel Fournier has been trying to fly for more than 20 years. Last week his much-publicized attempt to break several world records including those for longest and fastest free fall went awry three days in a row, first due...
POSTED Thursday, June 5, 2008
Choosing your music format is like being back in high school — either you’re in, or you’re out. If Apple has its way, you’ll be in, inexorably. Once you’ve committed to the iPod way of life, you’re in for...
POSTED Thursday, May 29, 2008
My friend Seiji compared his initial reaction to his iPhone to having a new girlfriend — he couldn't keep his hands off of it. But in the first flush of any rose-colored relationship, we tend to overlook our paramour's...
POSTED Thursday, May 22, 2008
Companies are offering way too many choices, offering dozens of mediocre products where a single good one would suffice. Samsung and Motorola pushing dozens of cellphones, Canon and Casio and Kodak hawking scores of camera choices, and Sony's bewildering...
POSTED Thursday, May 15, 2008
Plasma or LCD? There are other kinds of TVs out there, of course, from near-deceased CRT to rear projection, and the new but still tiny OLED format. But if you go to any electronics store today to buy a...
POSTED Thursday, May 8, 2008
While XM was fighting Sirius and iTunes was clobbering the record stores, another potentially huge change was afoot in the music-dissemination business. Internet radio has the ability to radically change how we access our favorite music, while increasing exposure...
POSTED Thursday, May 1, 2008
By the time we have Earth Day in 2010, California will be generating 20% of its energy from renewable resources. Other states and countries are joining them, too; in most cases, that’s a huge increase from what they were...
POSTED Thursday, April 24, 2008
Any TV you buy will work with any cable or satellite TV service you have. Any PC you buy, even a Mac, will work with any Internet service provider you use. Any landline phone, wired or cordless, will work...
POSTED Thursday, April 17, 2008
Our culture is driven by fear. Besides our own shadows, we’re afraid of flying, sharks, car accidents, dentists, terrorists, and lots of other stuff. But real-world stats show that most of these fears are completely unfounded; the objects of...
POSTED Thursday, April 10, 2008
Blu-ray officially won the format war against HD DVD more than six weeks ago. It's old news, but I'm still thinking about it. Ever since HD DVD died, commentators have been less than optimistic about Blu-ray's future. Just last...
POSTED Thursday, April 3, 2008
One year after XM and Sirius proposed a merger, the Department of Justice has finally given its blessing. The companies are heading down the aisle. Last year, I argued that a merger was in everybody’s best interest. After reading...
POSTED Thursday, March 27, 2008
As a technology writer, I'm often asked what gear I've chosen to open my metaphorical wallet on. In many cases, though, my choices aren't necessarily the best in their class. For instance, I got cheap and bought a 50-inch...
POSTED Thursday, March 20, 2008
Whatever happened to the Information Superhighway? It was the big talk of the 90s, but now the United States has fallen to 16th place in the world for broadband deployment and availability, according to a survey by the Communication...
POSTED Thursday, March 13, 2008
Attention all technology companies: you have three months to get your act together. Start pedaling now because in June Apple may steal your business. Why all tech companies? Because Apple's software development kit (SDK) announcement today revealed the real...
POSTED Thursday, March 6, 2008
When Warner Bros. announced in early January that it was pulling the plug on the release of HD DVD discs and going solely with Blu-ray, everyone could read the writing on the wall without even squinting. Last week, speculation...
POSTED Thursday, February 28, 2008
Print is cheap — that's Kodak's message. The company is trumpeting its line of EasyShare inkjet printers that use cheap $10 black and $15 five-color ink cartridges. Using these cheap inks, trumpets Kodak, can cut your printing costs by...
POSTED Thursday, February 21, 2008
Dear Vonage, I've been meaning to tell you this for over a year, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I mean, you've been such a cheap date, costing me about $19 per month compared to those...
POSTED Friday, February 15, 2008
When Apple rolled out the MacBook Air with its solid-state disk (SSD) inside, it felt like a new era in laptop computing had begun. Are solid-state state drives poised to replace those spinning hard disks we've become accustomed to...
POSTED Thursday, February 14, 2008
Last year when Steve Jobs announced Apple TV at Macworld 2007, I wasn't impressed. I expressed my displeasure at the fact that the media was basically giving a free pass to a product that I predicted would be an...
POSTED Thursday, February 7, 2008
Recently, two hikers were rescued off of Mt. Hood. They didn't have a GPS or personal locator, yet GPS technology saved their lives. Unable to figure out where they were in blizzard conditions, they built a snow cave to...
POSTED Thursday, January 31, 2008
You, faithful DVICE reader, have nothing to fear from the digital TV transition, when the FCC is due to officially "switch off" the analog-TV spectrum next February. I’m sure if you don't already have an HDTV, it's high up...
POSTED Thursday, January 24, 2008
The hype is over, the news has broken, and the backlash is in full swing. We're talking about the MacBook Air of course — the big gust of wind coming out of Cupertino this week. It's one of the...
POSTED Thursday, January 17, 2008
Wow, is it actually over? The Consumer Electronics Show has pretty much wound down, and we saw plenty of cool stuff — Killer TVs, megacool camcorders, and the most expensive speakers you've ever seen. Yeah, the 2008 Consumer Electronics...
POSTED Thursday, January 10, 2008
2008 is here, which means thousands of people will be making resolutions for the New Year. 2007 was a great year for technology, and like many, I ran out and purchased a lot of consumer electronics that looking back...
POSTED Thursday, January 3, 2008
Can you imagine a world before the iPhone? It's difficult, isn't it? But there was a time earlier in the year when instead of reviewing the iPhone, we were making predictions about it. In April I wrote a column...
POSTED Thursday, December 27, 2007
It's the time of year: Stockings are hung by the chimney with care, and you hope that the saint of all things high-tech soon will be there. After one too many eggnogs, you slip off for a fitful night's...
POSTED Thursday, December 20, 2007
With the annual Consumer Electronics Show fast approaching, prepare to be tsumanied by new gadgets that defy a credo every engineer and designer should have tattooed on their foreheads: Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. It's not...
POSTED Thursday, December 13, 2007
If you're a major gamer you probably know that Nintendo's DS Lite is the best-selling gaming machine of the year. Here are some more stats: During the recent Thanksgiving week consumers bought 9,200 DS Lites per hour. Over 57...
POSTED Thursday, December 6, 2007
I know, I know — you didn't know it was broken. Neither did I, until I tried to switch cellphone providers earlier this year. Or when I wanted to watch a downloaded video on my new HDTV. Or tried...
POSTED Thursday, November 29, 2007
Attention all television addicts: Prepare for some serious withdrawal, and a healthy dose of reality. Reality TV, that is. The East and West Coast divisions of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) are on strike against the Alliance of...
POSTED Thursday, November 15, 2007
That's assuming you're not watching TV while you're reading this. If you are, turn off your TV. Yeah, that's a hell of a thing to advise on a cable-TV channel site owned by a TV network. But said TV...
POSTED Thursday, November 8, 2007
Earlier this month Radiohead released its new album In Rainbows, making the music available using an ingenious "pay what you want" scheme. You can download the album for whatever you think it's worth (which could be $0) from the...
POSTED Thursday, November 1, 2007
Let's face it, October has become the new December. Labor Day had barely ended before the stores started rolling out their holiday wares. This season is going to be particularly interesting for anyone interested in an HDTV. With HD-set...
POSTED Thursday, October 25, 2007
A federal jury delivered a landmark verdict in a copyright-infringement case between the RIAA and defendant Jammie Thomas, a 30-year-old mother of two from Minnesota. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is the trade group that represents the...
POSTED Thursday, October 18, 2007
Fish gotta swim. Birds gotta fly. Hard-disk drives gotta crash. Even executives of companies who make hard-disk drives admit they have a life of between three and five years. They're mechanical. They wear out. Any hard drive still chugging...
POSTED Thursday, October 11, 2007
Last week we looked at two new robots for the home: iRobot's ConnectR and Erector's Skypee. Both do pretty much the same thing, though their stated purposes are a little different. They're both knee-high moving Webcams with VoIP speakerphone...
POSTED Thursday, October 4, 2007
Imagine life without electricity. The lights go out. Your fridge turns into a petri dish. The Internet becomes an abstraction, a memory. And of course, no TV — ah, maybe there is a bright side! But apart from that,...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
That's Technology. Those two words by Steve Jobs were the equivalent of throwing gas on the fire that had already been ignited by the $200 price cut of the Apple iPhone. While Jobs was attempting to explain the sudden...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
Antarctica is getting slushy, polar bears need a Coke to cool down, and everyone in Miami is keeping an eye on the sea level. Maybe Al Gore is right, and maybe he isn't. But no one can deny that...
POSTED Thursday, September 13, 2007
My poker buddy Seiji bought an iPhone an hour after I bought mine on June 29th. But instead of kibitzing for 13 hours in line with a couple of thousand other nincompoops at Apple's Fifth Avenue showcase store in...
POSTED Thursday, September 6, 2007
A moment of silence, please, in mourning for cathode-ray tube televisions. Certainly, LCDs and plasmas have many marked advantages over the elderly CRT. But those old screens are still better than flat panels in several ways, and they still...
POSTED Thursday, August 30, 2007
Last year, my colleague Adam Frucci took the position in his weekly column that video games are art. And in the last several months the debate has heated up with differing points of view. Film critic Roger Ebert weighed...
POSTED Thursday, August 23, 2007
It happens all too often. You turn your back, and bam! Your iPod is gone. It's been pinched. Jacked. Stolen. In fact, well over 50 million iPods have been taken illegally. One tragic murder has been attributed to a...
POSTED Thursday, August 16, 2007
When it comes to the quality of audio and video, there are those who claim they can see and hear angels dancing on the heads of pins when higher-priced cables are used. Instead of balletic angels, others more skeptical...
POSTED Thursday, August 9, 2007
A few years ago, social networking was for kids, lonely adults, nerds, and perverts. Today, everyone uses Facebook. This is a positive development: Facebook is fun, and it serves as a virtual White Pages for all of your friends,...
POSTED Thursday, August 2, 2007
Another Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual trade show for the video game industry, has come and gone. Unlike last year — when the focus was on the launch of two video game consoles — this year was more about...
POSTED Thursday, July 26, 2007
One of my coworkers is celebrating a birthday this weekend. Not a birthday for a living person, but rather a birthday for his 100-year-old house. Granted, there are a few problems like small closet space and a basement that...
POSTED Thursday, July 19, 2007
I'm pissed, and feel more than a little ripped off. I made an assumption, and we all know what happens when you assume. Back in April, I wrote about EMI working with Apple's iTunes to make the EMI catalog...
POSTED Thursday, July 12, 2007
The scene: iPhone Day. I was near the end of a 13-hour wait. At around 5 p.m., 12 hours into my iPhone vigil, friendly security guards moved the line east down 58th Street then north onto Fifth Avenue into...
POSTED Thursday, July 5, 2007
I'm convinced that most reporters who write about Second Life have never explored the world themselves. Maybe they read blogs about it or get press releases with screenshots from Linden Labs, but if they had actually "been" to the...
POSTED Thursday, June 28, 2007
In the open plains of the United States of America the wind blows, and it blows a lot. As pioneers crossed and settled the Great American Desert, they kept diaries and journals that tell tales of people going crazy...
POSTED Thursday, June 21, 2007
Image by Matt Krueger Asked if he had done market research before he invented the Model T, Henry Ford reportedly said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, I would have built a faster horse." Cars, of course, changed...
POSTED Thursday, June 14, 2007
Red states and blue states. With the presidential primary season in full pander mode, red states and blue states are currently a big political story. But in the world of technology, red states and blue states refer to the...
POSTED Thursday, June 7, 2007
Image by Matt Krueger Warning: this first part is going to sound like an advertisement. I love Google. I trust Google with an inordinate amount of information. It hosts a blog for me, my primary e-mail account, my calendar, and...
POSTED Thursday, May 31, 2007
Nearly every major video-game release in North America receives a rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, or ESRB, a self-regulatory part of the $10 billion-a-year video game industry. Founded in the early 1990s following a series of Congressional...
POSTED Thursday, May 24, 2007
Remember last summer when laptop batteries were exploding left and right causing the airline industry to place a ban on powering your precious laptop when in the air? While the fault was with poorly manufactured lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells...
POSTED Thursday, May 17, 2007
When XM and Sirius satellite radio launched less than a decade ago, they were instant archrivals. Coke and Pepsi had nothing on these two. Yankees and Mets are better buddies. These sworn enemies were fighting tooth and nail for...
POSTED Thursday, May 10, 2007
Youth violence. Does our violent culture cause it? Violent movies? Violent TV shows? Violent news? Violent video games? Of this group, only the latter offers an active, rather than passive, cause and effect. Gamers physically hold an object and...
POSTED Thursday, May 3, 2007
The press loves to talk about Apple. The cynics chalk it up to Steve Jobs's public relations savvy, while some journalists might counter that Apple products are unique, influential and iconic. With the iPod, Apple swept through and dominated...
POSTED Thursday, April 26, 2007
Way back in 2000, when the Internet was still wild, I started a new writing gig that required me to move from Atlanta to Southern California. While I had no problem moving some of my most valuable possessions (computer,...
POSTED Thursday, April 19, 2007
I am not a thief. I've never shoplifted. I once took a candy bar from my sister, but felt so guilty that I confessed and paid her back — three times. I feel bad taking more than one sample...
POSTED Thursday, April 12, 2007
And so it ends. In our fifth and final column examining the use of backscatter x-ray machines in airport security, S.E. Kramer stays on target by jettisoning tangential issues about privacy and asking, "Will these machines actually make us...
POSTED Friday, April 6, 2007
In Part 4 of our weeklong series examining the use of backscatter x-ray machines in airport security, Leslie Shapiro doesn't pull any punches. Her Shift takes on the new technology in detail — and spells out exactly what we should...
POSTED Thursday, April 5, 2007
Our week of opining continues, with another of our new columnists chiming in on the privacy-versus-security issues that arise with backscatter x-ray machines, coming soon to airport security checkpoints near you. Picking up this Shift is none other than Stephen...
POSTED Wednesday, April 4, 2007
And now for Round 2 in our scrutinize-airport-security week, inspired by the advent of backscatter x-ray technology, a new system meant to obsolete pat-down searches at airports. Today's Shift is taken by Stewart Wolpin, who points out there are...
POSTED Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Backscatter x-ray technology, a new system meant to make airport security searches easy and non-contact, brings with it concerns about privacy and effectiveness. With the multitude of issues at stake (touched upon recently by William Saletan over at Slate), we...
POSTED Monday, April 2, 2007
Image by Matt Krueger At a time where a story announcing that the iTunes store might carry Beatles music warrants coverage in The New York Times and new iPod shuffle colors creates a flurry of fuss across the blogosphere, the...
POSTED Thursday, February 15, 2007
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Falon The iPhone looks pretty sweet. Yep, it's got that fancy touchscreen that you can use two fingers on, it changes...
POSTED Thursday, January 25, 2007
Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger Early adopters — those fine folks who run out to buy the latest technology as soon as it hit the shelves...
POSTED Thursday, January 4, 2007
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger Hey, it's almost Christmas! Merry Christmas to all you people who celebrate Christmas out there, and to everyone else...
POSTED Thursday, December 21, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger Not much has changed in the structure of major media in the past few decades. It's a pretty standard...
POSTED Thursday, December 14, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Falon Dearly beloved, We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of our friends the CD, the DVD, the HD...
POSTED Thursday, December 7, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Falon Oh, Zune. You had so much promise! We were all so excited when we heard that Microsoft was putting all...
POSTED Thursday, November 30, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger We've got a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and I don't mean that in a sappy "We...
POSTED Thursday, November 23, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Falon Who in their right mind would go out and buy a high-definition disc player right now? Seriously. To go out...
POSTED Thursday, November 16, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Falon I haven't hidden the fact that I think the PlayStation 3, Sony's next-generation game console, is way overpriced and the...
POSTED Thursday, November 9, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Falon As gadgets and technology have become more mainstream in recent years, how a device looks has become just as important...
POSTED Thursday, November 2, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Falon Ah, Halloween. The only day of the year that it's socially acceptable for you to walk around in public dressed...
POSTED Thursday, October 26, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Falon Technology has swept in to improve nearly every aspect of our lives, from medical science to entertainment to travel. However,...
POSTED Thursday, October 19, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger MySpace and Facebook are technically "social networking" sites, but are they really that social? Sure, you can get in...
POSTED Thursday, October 12, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger With DVRs popping up in more living rooms every day, the advertising industry is scrambling to figure out how...
POSTED Thursday, October 5, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger I'll apologize right now for using "Web 2.0" in the title of this column. It's a terrible buzzword, but...
POSTED Thursday, September 28, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger I've made no secret of the fact that I'm totally psyched for the upcoming Nintendo Wii and that I...
POSTED Thursday, September 21, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger This week I invited Peter Pachal, my esteemed editor, to join me in a healthy debate on this whole...
POSTED Thursday, September 14, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger Apple is set to start offering full-length movies for download through iTunes for viewing on iPods and Sprint is...
POSTED Thursday, September 7, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Falon From the moment it was announced, Rockstar Games' upcoming Bully attracted a huge backlash, despite the fact that almost nothing...
POSTED Thursday, August 31, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger With the rapid advances in computing power over the years, it seems ironic that the personal computer could someday...
POSTED Thursday, August 24, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger There are two new ways to connect to the Internet coming in the near future (if not here already),...
POSTED Thursday, August 17, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Matt Krueger At Monday's World Wide Developer's Conference, Apple revealed a number of new features for its upcoming update to the...
POSTED Thursday, August 10, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Falon Imagine carrying just one device that would do everything all your portable gadgets do now. A cell phone that holds...
POSTED Thursday, August 3, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. If I had my druthers, I would be able to watch any show, at any time. Add to that any movie. Yeah, I'd...
POSTED Thursday, July 27, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. Image by Falon The iPod is the clear leader in digital audio players and has been since its launch for a reason —...
POSTED Thursday, July 20, 2006
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift. The Nintendo Wii has surprised a lot of people, generating loads of buzz from its strange name, unique controller, and low price point....
POSTED Thursday, July 13, 2006