December 2nd, 2008
Podcast: gadgets for Christmas, iPod lovin' and the Blu-ray war
Zack Whittaker has taken a few days off to “get his head together”, but last week took half an hour out to record a podcast with his best friend, Elliot Harrison, who has stepped up to the firing squad to cover this week.
Some notes for those listening:
- The iPhone kill-switch, mentioned around 4 minutes in, was on “Between the Lines” and can be found here.
- The clumsy idiot who broke his iPhone in less than 24 hours and had it replaced for free, the story can be found here.
- The alarm clock mentioned, which spins around on the bedroom floor when it goes off, is called Clocky. Although the MIT website says it’s not commercially available at the moment, it can be found here.
- The crazy rabbit which Elliot talks about is called a Nabaztag; a wireless-enabled (not Ethernet) rabbit which informs you of information you select. It’s a bit weird, but certainly looks interesting.
- The iPod pillow was indeed called a Sound Asleep Pillow, and is available on their website as well as other retailers.
- The iPod adverts can be seen on the London IMAX cinema here.
- When Steve Jobs spoke about “a glass of ice water to people in Windows”, he was referring to Safari 3 and not iTunes, but near enough.
- For those who want to use an alternative to iTunes such as SharePod, here’s the link to the free download. If you’re not sure, see the screenshot gallery on their website.
- There’s an interesting article about the Betamax vs. VHS format war, as well as the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD format war on The Times website.
- A slight correction: Blu-ray storage is around 25-50GB, and the multi-layer disc which could rival the Blu-ray, the Versatile Multilayer Disc could end up being double the storage depending on how many layers on the disc.
Update: fixed! If/when the podcast inevitably stops working, leave a TalkBack and let me know.
Zack Whittaker, the youngest in the ZDNet network, is a British student at the University of Kent, Canterbury, where he studies BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy. His insight into the next-generation is unique and first-hand, sharing his knowledge of the here and now but more so what's next and how to get there.
You can read his public biography and his work disclosures of his current and past industry affiliations.
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