jeffreymark

LOVE MY iPHONE BUT...

I could never trade my iPhone for another. But its navigation system is written. That makes it sluggish and dangerous when driving. Walt Mossberg reviews the latest applications that offer turn by turn, automated navigation. For now I will stick with the indigenous app.  

CHANGING THE WAY WE WATCH MOVIES

With sagging sales and vicious competition Hollywood is hard at work changing the way we watch movies.

MEMORY BOOSTER

For those of us whose adult ADD (anyone over 40 probably has this disease) wreaks havoc on our memory, fear no more. Now there is Evernote. It's a life saver. I've been using it since August.

WWII SUBMARINE TECHNOLOGY

My father served on the USS Apogon during WWII. This Balao class submarine fascinates me to this day. Submariners served in an elite branch of the Navy. In order to become a submariner one had to undergo intense psychological and physical training. Because of the risks involved submariners earned the highest pay in the armed forces during the second world war. The Apogon patrolled strategic islands in the Pacific such as the Mariana Islands, insuring that Japanese transports and supply ships never got through. Boing Boing TV via Instapundit, gives us a tour of the Balao class USS Pampanito. Interesting note-when one watches this piece they will witness the cramped quarters, sweaty environment, and cigarette pollution(which did not offend those old vets because most of them smoked), present on board submarines. To top it all off and not mentioned in this video is the fact that the crew stored their food in the showers and bathed by either swimming in the ocean or getting hosed down on deck. And you think you have it rough. Hat's off to the men who paid such a steep price for our luxuries today.

A PEEPING TOM ROBOT?

Well, it has that potential if someone sticks a camera on it. Just put that baby on a window and watch it walk.
(From Techanbob)

GOOGLE TO DEVELOP X-RAY TECHNOLOGY

A Google engineer, who asked to remain anonymous, has just emailed to let us know about an amazing new secret feature in both Google Earth and Google Maps: two new satellite modes which let you see heat maps and believe it or not, literally inside buildings… yes, Google have added both X-ray and infrared thermal imagery!

Click here to see more images and read the rest of the story.

iPHONE COMMENTARY

The iPhone, although pricy, continues to enthrall Dr. Mac, better known as Bob Levitus:

I raved about my iPhone in two columns last July and haven't mentioned it since. So I'd like to share my opinion of iPhone after seven months of heavy use. On July 10, I ended my column by saying: "Sure it's expensive, but I still recommend iPhone without hesitation."

That was when the 8 gigabyte model sold for $599. The price has since dropped to $399, so what I said back in July is even truer today.

Where else can you find a world-class phone, plus video, audio, Web and e-mail, all in a single hand-held device with an intuitive user interface?

I rest my case.

Then, on July 24, after a month of testing, I said I couldn't "imagine living without one."

That is still true today as well.

I marvel that I can send and receive e-mail, talk on the phone, surf the Web, listen to music, watch a movie or play a game from almost anywhere in the U.S.

A couple of weeks ago, Apple issued a free iPhone software update (1.1.3) that added new features and improved old ones, which made iPhone even better. The changes include:

• The Maps application has an improved interface and can now use cellular towers or Wi-Fi base stations to determine and display your location.

• You can reposition icons on the home screen and create up to nine screens you can switch between with the flick of a finger.

• You can create Web Clips — shortcuts to your favorite sites — and then save them as icons on your home screen. More convenient than bookmarks, Web Clips even remember your location on the page and zoom setting.

• You can send the same SMS text message to multiple recipients.

So after seven months, I believe the iPhone is the best darn mobile phone money can buy. Now, if Apple would just add the last two missing features —

GADGETS

Fast Company offers a cool-stuff roundup from the annual Consumer Electronics show.

P.S.
I knew gadget geek extraordinaire Glenn Reynolds might post something about the CE show.

THE HIGH DEF. DEBATE

Shopping for a good HD television set up like me. Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit offers a little advice about Blue Ray vs. HD.

Making friends for the world to see with HALO 3. And mothers just love it:

Another mother sees video games as, in essence, today's neighborhood hangout. "Thirty years ago you could run around a neighborhood at night. These days you can't let them out like that," says Connie Young of Oakland. "The neighborhood is no longer what is used to be as a source for friends." Ms. Young likes the way games such as "Halo" allow for team play over the Internet or together in a room. Her son Kevin says he has made friends he would never have made otherwise. He has traveled as far as the Czech Republic to play in professional "Halo 2" competitions. "You practice with your team on the weekends," he says, likening it to playing sports. "You go to dinner together, you party together, you get so accustomed to each other that you think in a unified way."

Digital Life offers a glimpse of some new HIGH TECH PRODUCTS with a competitive edge.

I never liked cats anyway. Now I KNOW WHY I'D RATHER HAVE A DOG:

More than 50 percent of the current asthma cases in the U.S. are the result of allergies, especially to cats, according to a new National Institutues of Health (NIH) study.

Fat Boys BEWARE:

Researchers in Italy found that about 50 percent of overweight, hypertensive adults, ranging in age from 29 to 65 years, achieved normal body weight and blood pressure after six months of treatment with a reduced-calorie diet.
"This is important because it means that in these patients with elevated blood pressure who were overweight, the blood pressure was not a form of essential hypertension but was hypertension secondary to body weight," said Roberto Fogari, M.D., lead investigator of the study and professor of medicine at the University of Pavia, Italy.