I just had something come across my desk today… It’s an aftermarket mail-in repair program from Blue Raven for iPods. You simply order the kit, pack up your iPod and it’s repaired for you in three days (not including shipping time.)

What struck me funny was a line the PR person used to promote the plan. And I quote:

“almost everyone has an out of warranty broken iPod.”

Really? And then it hit me as I took a mental survey. She’s basically right. Way to go, Apple. What other product or industry can you say that with? Let’s try a few:

• “almost everyone has an out of warranty broken plasma TV.” – Nope
• “almost everyone has an out of warranty broken microwave.” – Nope
• “almost everyone has an out of warranty broken remote control.” – Nope
• “almost everyone has an out of warranty broken fax machine.” – Nope

Apple is the bomb! As in: “you have 90 days until your product explodes.”

OK, everyone probably knows that many many moons ago, while others were discussing which of the new HD-DVD formats would win, I wrote an article sounding the death knell for BOTH. What I didn’t realize was the extent to which each format would participate in this death in a sort of digital Hara-Kiri that was drawn out over months of consumer confusion and self-congratulatory press releases. Read more…

Being a reviewer means, apparently to my wife’s chagrin, never having to vacuum. I have so much stuff lying around my theater room floor and office that it’s hard to realize I have more than the 4 square feet allocated to me by my chair. Now, this isn’t necessarily a big deal, except that I want to start shooting more videos. Video First Looks we call them – and they allow us to post quick info on new products that show off interesting features. It’s a cool concept, but now I have to set up a mini studio – and that’s a big project.
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Yes, it’s a famous “ballad” by a screechy, overly made-up girly-looking 80’s hair band, but it’s also the way I feel now that Tom has been out of reach for several long weeks… What’s that? It’s only been a week and a half…? Well, whatever, it feels like it’s been a lot longer. Tom takes care of loads of “crap” work – we shovel it to him, he puts on some gloves and molds it into something useful. Now I’m shoveling my own crap and it stinks. Oh yeah, and we posted the CEDIA video today.
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According to an article on Gizmodo, Larry Page, Google founder and Billionaire tree-hugger, is sick and tired of “inefficient power supplies in servers eating up boatloads of his profits” so he’s calling for home computers and servers to have everything run at 12VDC. This would eliminate the hodgepodge of 5VDC and 12VDC mixed systems located within PCs today.
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