Tag Archives: Geekspeak

Printers, eBooks, SmartTVs, Laptops, Tablets and Romance…

  By Alex | May 24, 2011 - 7:27 pm | 30 Seconds Of Tech, Published
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A busy day here — both in the office and out and about.

Firstly, at CNET, a review of a larger-than-normal printer:

Canon Pixma iX6550: “The iX6550 isn’t awash with features, but those after a somewhat compact A3 printer should find it good value.”

Then at Geekspeak, two columns covering the rise of the eBook and SmartTV concepts:

Smart TVs: Are They Smart? “I’ve been working in the tech industry for long enough to see some real clunker products along the way…”

Have eBooks become must-read articles? “Electronic books have been around a lot longer than most people think…”

Out and about today then for a pair of 30 Seconds Of Tech Articles. Firstly, on a boat with Dell:

 

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And then in a hotel room with Asus and a giant robot. Or at least the name suggests that.

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Finally, something that I had absolutely nothing to do with.. but wish I did!

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Tablets, Privacy, Flips And My Fifteen Seconds Of Fame

  By Alex | May 5, 2011 - 10:07 am | Published
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As Road Warrior Animal used to say… Wooah…. what a rush. A spectacularly busy week, in fact.

First off, a couple of TV appearances. On the ABC, I appeared on “7:30″ discussing the Sony PSN hack:

Hack Attack: The security breach on the Sony gaming network and what it means for cyber safety.

And then the day after, an appearance on SBS World News Australia discussing the day’s developments in the same case.

PlayStation breach widens: Sony says it’s hired a team of cyber-security detectives after finding a breach was bigger than first thought.

In both cases, I think my TV actually got more air time than I did, but that’s the way of things… and nicely recursive.

Written rather than spoken words continue to be my stock in trade, however, and In any case, I wasn’t going to let that experience go to waste, so it’s also the subject of this week’s Hydrapinion:

My portable may not be your portable: “TV cameras (or at least the models the ABC uses; perhaps the cashed-up commercial networks are different) are still pretty chunky beggars…”

Meanwhile, at Geekspeak, three columns for your perusal went up:

Take Two Tablets And…? “For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been testing out Apple’s new iPad 2 against its most immediate competition, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1v.”

What does privacy mean for you online? “There isn’t a simple way these days to fall off the radar of everybody all the time (and only the most introverted would want to), but it’s certainly worth thinking about how you use online services…”

Did Smartphones Kill The Video Star? “It also makes me wonder how (and whether) people shoot video with small devices…”

Mega Flipping Out And Going Radio Gaga

  By Alex | April 14, 2011 - 10:37 am | 30 Seconds Of Tech, Published
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Bigger, better, faster, more; it’s a constant refrain in the technology industry.

Except, of course, if you’re canning a product. This week’s Hydrapinion looks at Cisco’s decision to can the Flip:

Cisco Flips Out: “I’ve got to admit, when I read about Cisco’s decision to cull the Flip line of personal camcorders, I was a little surprised. At first, anyway.”

When you’re launching a product, it’s all go, go go, as evidenced from last week’s launch of a new line of PURE digital radios. That gets a rundown at Geekspeak:

Are you still gaga for radio? “Radio’s one of those technologies that you probably don’t think about that much at all. It’s just there.”

Finally, what better way to describe your product than to declare it ‘Mega’? Well, actually, I can think of several, but that hasn’t stopped Vodafone from using it to describe its latest USB modem, which gets the 30 Seconds Of Tech treatment:

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Tech Trends & Spyware Surprises

  By Alex | April 4, 2011 - 11:47 am | Published
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Another week kicks off. I can’t seem to stop that happening.

First cab off the ranks this week is my Geekspeak column, which uses the Samsung Keylogger scandal (which wasn’t a scandal at all) to discuss the issue of preinstalled software generally:

What’s preinstalled on your PC? “Do you use all or any of the preinstalled applications on your PC, or uninstall all of them and start with a fresh PC every single time?”

And then, jumping forward into the future (ever so slightly), the May issue of PC & Tech Authority features my contributions towards the cover story, which looks at this year’s 10 hottest technologies. I’ve contributed thoughts on NFC and Battery Technologies, with a slew of other expert opinions offering plenty of insight. It’ll go on sale, so the on-sale fairies tell me, on the 6th of April.

Power: How to conserve it, and how to abuse it

  By Alex | March 28, 2011 - 9:04 am | Published
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A running theme through the articles that went up in the latter half of last week. First up, at Geekspeak, a review of Belkin’s Conserve Insight:

How much power does your IT equipment use? “Plugging in a PC, however, saw the figure jump very quickly up to $295, and a second PC saw that hop up to a scary $610 per annum.”

Then at MacTheMag, a look at Apple’s rather cynical methodology for generating additional iPad 2 hype, by way of 1am-product-launches-that-aren’t-actually-launches:

What’s Apple’s iPad 2 game? “Fashionable headwear aside, why would Apple do that kind of scheduling?”

Smartphones, Smartphones and Mac Security

  By Alex | March 18, 2011 - 7:17 am | Published
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Another week winds its way down; one that’s been somewhat quiet on the publishing front.

At Hydrapinion, I opined about smartphone pricing:

How cheap can smartphones get? “Clearly someone in Telstra’s marketing department has a thing for the word “Touch”.

and at Geekspeak, I ran down the operating system factors to consider when buying a smartphone:

Smartphones Head To Head: “The problem is, most smartphone contracts cost pretty much the same irrespective of the model of phone you choose…”

switching away from smartphones for a second, I pondered on the tricky subject of Mac security for MacTheBlog:

Is your Mac really secure? “Are criminals located somewhere in a shady Eastern European country going to coat their Ferraris in finest Beluga Caviar, all paid for with your credit cards?”

Dell Inspiron, Optus Mini WiFi, Motorola Defy and More

  By Alex | January 16, 2011 - 9:50 pm | Published
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It’s mid-January already? How did that happen?

While most folks took the Christmas/New Year’s week off in late 2010, I’ve bucked with tradition, instead taking it a little easy over the past week. “A Little Easy” in this case involves driving more than 4,000km in the last ten days (and I don’t even like driving), as well as having a bunch of articles published. I’m not sure, on reflection, if that’s “easy” at all. But it does explain why the blog’s lain a little fallow for a week or two.

First of all, at CNET.com.au:

Dell Inspiron One 2310: “Dell’s take on the all-in-one looks great, but doesn’t quite perform as well as we’d like.”

Optus Mini WiFi Modem: “Optus’ Mini WiFi has some impressively shiny hardware, but the carrier’s charging regime remains a significant roadblock to our recommendation of it.”

Then my regular technology column at Geekspeak:

Is Touch Going To Be Enough? “Touch still relies on physical contact, and one of the other reasons why I’ve yet to be really wowed by a touch-capable notebook is the physical effort involved in reaching over to the screen.”

What’s New In Consumer Technology for 2011: “The recipe’s pretty simple; a high end Sandy Bridge Intel Chip, Two NVIDA GTX 580s for graphics processing… inside a working beer keg.”

I’m also featured in the February 2011 issue of Australian PC User, where you’ll find my reviews of Motorola’s excellent little Defy smartphone, Foxtel’s Xbox on 360 service (sans patronising TV ads, as I hadn’t seen them at the time), Kogan’s 32″ Full HD LED TV with HD Tuner, LG’s Optimus One, Western Digital’s WD Livewire Homeplugs, Telstra’s Prepaid Mobile Broadband Hotspot, the sublime GoldenEye 007 for Wii and the BoomShakaLakaTastic NBA Jam for Xbox 360. And for those who wish to be pedantic, if you think BoomShakaLakaTastic doesn’t count as a word, you’re just not thinking hard enough.

NBN Pricing And Augmented Applications

  By Alex | December 20, 2010 - 5:37 pm | Published
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First up today (at least chronologically), a look at the very clever Word Lens over at Geekspeak:

Augmented Reality Makes Reality Easier To Understand: “Where Augmented Reality applications like Word Lens or Google Goggles get it right is by reducing the need to interface with the application down to a few seconds, rather than a constant connection…”

And then at PC & Tech Authority, my take on what the announced NBN pricing will really mean for consumers:

Opinion: Will NBN pricing lead to better Aussie broadband deals? “Do the prices announced today for the National Broadband Network (NBN) mean you should be excited about having fibre connected to your home?”


Useless USB drives, Terrifying Terabytes, Killer Couch Potatoes And… Lapdances?

  By Alex | December 8, 2010 - 2:15 pm | Published
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It’s all in a day’s work for an in-demand technology journalist, really. You should see what it’s like around here when I get really busy.*

First up, CNET.com.au has a review of a nice product that doesn’t seem to have a particular niche in mind.

Hitachi LifeStudio Mobile Plus: “Hitachi’s Mobile LifeStudio has an interesting design, but we can’t work out who would actually find it useful and valuable.”

Then over at PC Authority, alliteration meets the world of ISPs by way of broadband plans with scads of data attached:

Should you be terrified of terabyte plans? “Still, at least a 1TB plan should be easy to decipher. Just take the cost of the plan and divide it by 1TB (remembering that ISPs tend to count 1TB=1000GB, for the mathematically pedantic) and you’ve got a good measuring stick, right? Not so fast!”

Then at Geekspeak, I ponder on whether ABC’s iView app will spell the death of the couch potato, and try to resurrect a ’70s National icon at the same time:

Geekspeak: ABC’s iView app spells the death of the couch potato: “If you’re of a certain age, you’ll recall the mascot of the ‘Life Be In It’ campaign: Norm.”

Before finally finishing up at Hydrapinion with lapdancing. No, not that sort of lapdancing.

Hydrapinion: The Lapdance Problem: “For all that we’d opted for slightly different methods of note taking, we were all struck with the same basic problem.”

*Which is pretty much all the time at the moment. Anyone tells you Freelancers have it easy, send them my way for ‘re-education’. With a brick.

Back to work. Lots of work…

  By Alex | November 29, 2010 - 3:02 pm | Published
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With NaNoWriMo successfully behind me, I’d better get on with some work.

Actually, the writing process for NaNoWriMo didn’t stop me working much per se at all, although it did play havoc with my evening recreation time. A Country Practice is still on the air, right?

While I work out what’s happened to Fatso The Wombat, you could keep yourself busy with this week’s Geekspeak:

Today might be boring, but it’s not the most boring day ever: “Need to know, for reasons that need not be specified, the name of the world’s largest
earthworm?”

And at CNET.com.au, there’s a whole smorgasbord of content for your perusal:

Canon PIXMA MG8150: “The Pixma MG8150 is the costly bigger brother of the excellent MG6150, but unless you’ve got a burning need for slide scanning, it’s difficult to justify the additional cost.”

Western Digital My Passport Essential USB 3.0 1TB: “Western Digital’s My Passport Essential USB 3.0 1TB is an adequate USB 3.0 drive, but it’s not the quickest drive on the market.”

Western Digital MyPassport AV 320GB: “Should you buy an AV-specific USB 2.0 external hard drive? In a word, no.”

Telstra Prepaid Mobile Broadband Hotspot: “It’s not as flashy as comparable portable devices, but Telstra’s prepaid mobile broadband hotspot delivers speed — at a price.”

PADACS Rubata Keyboard: “PADACS’ Rubata Keyboard is the best iPad keyboard we’ve seen yet. It’s not perfect, but if you’re after a productivity boost for the normally consumption-centric iPad, it’s a good option.”