[LINK] Pogue: Best Tech Ideas of the Year

Karl Auer kauer at biplane.com.au
Sat Jan 1 12:03:21 AEDT 2011


On Fri, 2010-12-31 at 01:54 +0000, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> State of the Art
> The Pogies: Best Tech Ideas of the Year
> WINDOWS PHONE 7 CAMERA BUTTON Microsoft Windows Phone 7 is a rival to the 
> iPhone and Android phones, but with a genuinely fresh, smart design. One 
> example: You can use the phones camera even when the phone itself is 
> turned off. Just hold down the shutter button to turn on only the 
> camera side. You spend less time fussing, waiting and missing photo 
> ops. 

Because, of course, most people walk around with their mobile phones
switched off. Pffff. Is this the best example of "fresh, smart design",
that this device embodies?

> Not anymore. This $20 wall plate includes two regular three-prong power 
> outlets  and two standard U.S.B. jacks. Now you can plug gadgets 
> directly into the wall to recharge, no computer needed. 

Instead of a piece of kit that has to be wired into the house but will
be out of date in a few years, how about a fit-over plate? All the
benefits, none of the downsides, and the market now includes existing
houses, not just new ones.

> camera to your computer, you probably hunt for the U.S.B. cable. The 
> masterstroke here: this camera has a flip-out U.S.B. jack, just like the 
> Flip camcorder. So you never need to pack or find a cable or a card 
> reader when you want to transfer pictures; the camera connects right to 
> the computer. 

So you now have a heavy camera applying force to a tiny plug. When it
breaks - as it inevitably will - you need to get the camera repaired (or
more likely replaced). If the camera came with a pull out length of
cable (even just a few centimetres would do) *that* would be a cool
idea.

> Any customer of Chase Bank (and some customers of USAA, which had the 
> idea first) can deposit a check just by taking a picture of it with an 
> iPhone or Android phone. Thats right: sign the back, use the app to 
> photograph the front and back, type the amount, and tap send. 
> 
> Youve just made a fully legitimate deposit; at this point, you can 
> actually rip up the check.

Might be an idea to hold onto the cheque until it appears on your
statement...

Bah! Humbug!

:-)

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer/                   +61-428-957160 (mob)

GPG fingerprint: DA41 51B1 1481 16E1 F7E2 B2E9 3007 14ED 5736 F687
Old fingerprint: B386 7819 B227 2961 8301 C5A9 2EBC 754B CD97 0156




More information about the Link mailing list