Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007.
Some posts he’d like you to read:
The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin
His personal website is coldewey.cc.
Remember that feeling you got back when Steve Jobs was unveiling the iPhone, and he did the “slide to unlock” gesture for the first time? I remember the way he said it – “You like that? Want to see it again?”
Since then I haven’t seen a lock screen interface that has made me feel that same “how obvious, how elegant!” feeling – until today at the NVIDIA press conference, and later at the Microsoft keynote here at CES. It sounds a little silly, sure, making such a big deal of such a small feature, but it’s just nice to see a genuinely natural and new way of doing something we’ve all done thousands upon thousands of times over the last few years. → Read More
At NVIDIA’s press conference today, NVIDIA had a couple little surprises. Little being the word, there — they announced a diminutive 7″ tablet to compete with the likes of the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire. The price, $249, is certainly competitive. But the tablet itself, the hardware anyway, blows them out of the water.
Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO, described it as being very nearly as powerful as the Transformer Prime, which despite some marketing and naming mishaps, is still a hell of a tablet. To put that amount of power in a smaller package and reduce the price to that level is a nice little achievement. → Read More
CES is just the event for little items like these: gadgets, pure and simple. Pico-projectors (or mini, micro, pocket, or what have you projectors) are among the few gadgets I really enjoy seeing incremental improvements in, and look forward to CES every year for those improvements. This year hasn’t disappointed: we saw Optoma’s new gear last night, Microvision has a new one coming tomorrow, and 3M has just brought theirs out as well.
There are two new projectors: the MP220, next in series of hot dog bun-shaped pico projectors, and the boxier MP410. → Read More
The veil has already been lifted on Fujifilm’s new semi-pro interchangeable-lens compact thanks to a French magazine with an itchy printer finger, but here at CES, the camera has just been made official and all the gaps in our information have been filled.
Check out the official confirmation and some new specs inside. → Read More
The last iteration of Canon’s compact rangefinder-esque series of cameras, the G12, wasn’t particularly compelling to me. It barely stood up to its opposite number at Nikon, on paper at least, and the superb S95 seemed like a better deal to most people who opted to go Canon at that price. Today they’ve unveiled the G1X, however, which addresses most of the sticking points of the previous device, though it also raises the price considerably. → Read More
When you’re a small team going to cover the biggest electronics show in the world, every person has to act as a Swiss Army knife, able to fill any role at any time. This generally produces an incredibly heavy bag, packed with spare cameras, lenses, batteries, cords, and of course a laptop. Luckily for us, our live-camera approach to covering the show takes a bit of that burden off of our sagging shoulders now, but old habits die hard and it’s good to be prepared just in case.
Aren’t you curious what’s filling your favorite bloggers’ bags to bursting? We’ve rounded up the items we’ll be taking to CES, arrayed them, and described them for your benefit. Take a look. → Read More
Last night we heard that the One Laptop Per Child program would be showing off its long-awaited XO-3 tablet at CES. We’ll be getting a hands-on then, but they were kind enough to send out a couple pictures of the device this morning, and they seem worth sharing. → Read More
After years in the making, the One Laptop Per Child program’s XO-3 tablet will be shown in more or less final form next week at CES, according to the project’s founder, Nicholas Negroponte. The latest image of the tablet is shown here, though it is from some time back and may no longer be representative.
The price of the tablet will in fact be under $100, he said, though various options will put it over that. It has an 8-inch screen — traditional LCD, though it may be upgraded to a Pixel Qi display for power savings and e-paper-like capability. If they stuck to their original specifications, it will also be waterproof, durable, and about a quarter of an inch thick. The version they’re showing will run Android, though what version was not specified. → Read More
Short version: A powerful little device, significantly brighter than others of its size, with decent battery life and a good picture. Too bad it’s so damn loud, and not the most user-friendly thing of all time either. → Read More
Watch first, then read. Or just watch, that’s cool too. → Read More
We don’t design and hardware quite as much as we used to, but I’m making an exception for these. A good while back, I wrote about a pair of headphones I thought was the most understated and attractive I’d ever seen. They were the TMA-1s from Danish design house AIAIAI, and while I never got to get my hands on them, I’m going to make it my business to try their new pair out. → Read More
![LG Google TV 01.jpg[20120106092650465]](http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/lg-google-tv-0120120106092650465.jpg?w=250 "LG Google TV 01.jpg[20120106092650465]")
In keeping with our prediction that Google TV would be seeing something of an expansion this year at CES, LG’s first foray into the Google TV ecosystem has just been unveiled ahead of the show.
As you can see in the picture, it’s got a new interface but the guts are still Google TV. This is probably something that we’ll be seeing more of: manufacturer-specific builds, like Sense and TouchWiz for your TV. → Read More
No.
At least, that is what Vint Cerf, of TCP/IP, IEEE, and Google fame, decides in a NY Times op-ed piece. But the idea is subtler than the flame-bait headline; the decidedly less flashy “technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself” expresses it more accurately.
It’s a difficult topic to address, not just because it’s naturally inflammatory, but because it is difficult to pin down what exactly is meant by “right,” and what is meant by “internet.” Without defining terms, any assertion is meaningless. But a little thought seems to exonerate both Cerf’s position and that of the people who take exception to it. → Read More
We just wrote up Fujifilm’s CES lineup of normal point-and-shoots, and I noted that there was no sign of the interchangeable-lens X-series camera we saw leaked in prototype form a while back. I expected it to show at CES proper, but it seems that Fuji didn’t want to spoil the surprise by putting the news out early.
Luckily for us, someone else did! French photo magazine Réponses Photo has gone to press with an article on the new camera, called the X-Pro1, and a few sweet new lenses. → Read More
Last month we highlighted some work by SuVolta, a startup in tech that is not involved with the web or social media, but rather is taking aim at the foundational technologies of computing. The small team has reportedly put together a new process for manufacturing transistors that reduces their power requirements dramatically, making the resultant chips especially good for devices like handsets and tablets.
They caught the eye of Fujitsu, which has helped them execute the technology, and now they’ve drawn a hefty second funding round, raising $17.6 million from new and old investors. → Read More
The compulsion in camera makers to release a dozen or more cameras at a time is understandable, I guess. Get ‘em all out of the way so the PR company isn’t always worrying about this or that release date, embargo time, or what have you. But for your humble blogger, it is something of a trial.
In this case Fujifilm has revealed their CES lineup of point-and-shoots, and there are no less than 19 of them. And that’s not counting the rumored X1 interchangeable-lens camera we are also expecting. Let’s take a little sample of Fuji’s offering. There’s nothing groundbreaking, just so you know, but if you’re in the market for a point and shoot, take a quick look.
If you’d like more complete specs and the whole lineup, go to Fuji’s CES page; these are just our highlights. → Read More
There’s a problem with the idea of an iTV, rumors of which have been sloshing about for a long time, but with greater intensity since Steve Jobs’ biography hinted at one. Unlike an Apple TV, an iPhone, an iPad, or other devices, an Apple TV wouldn’t be tied to a Mac, and it wouldn’t take advantage of iTunes the way those devices do. It’ll be related, of course, but it doesn’t promote the “hub” idea that drives iPhone owners to buy Macs, Mac owners to buy iPhones, and all the other crossover purchases that interweave the Apple ecosystem.
Instead, it would be an Apple-designed window into content that Apple has very little control over. And while you can bring a new idea to the TV space, as set-top boxes and Google TV have, you can’t make the TV space play nice. Google learned that the hard way. And it looks like Apple may be facing a similar challenge. → Read More
Here’s an interesting little project that, while it’s unlikely to grow into a major product, nevertheless demonstrates the potential of alternative interfaces. Bruno Zamborlin’s Mogees (an abbreviation of “mosaicing gestural surface”) takes input from a contact microphone and analyzes it to determine the placement and direction of gestures on any surface through which vibrations can be detected.
I wrote a while back about how the “finger on a glass touchscreen” wasn’t the be-all and end-all of user interaction. The stylus, for example, has much life left in it. And interfaces we haven’t even thought of will emerge as well. Why not a puck that turns your table into a touchable surface?
It really has to be seen to be understood. → Read More
Poor Kodak. At this point, they’re just along for the ride. The last few years have been rough on them, and they’ve made a few big decisions that haven’t panned out. I must admit that while my unsolicited advice to them was sound, it probably would have to have been put in place a decade ago for them to have avoided the current state of things. As it is, the WSJ has word that they are planning to file Chapter 11 and do a court-supervised auction of their many digital imaging patents.
It’s sad, but the truth is that while Kodak is very much still a valuable company, it’s simply not a viable business any more. Their efforts to change the business they’re in came too late — and now they’re in the business of going under. → Read More
While many big companies are putting on big press conferences next week at CES, many smaller ones are getting their new gadgets out there early so people will want to drop by their booth. Velocity Micro just dropped a few new things, and we’ll be sure to swing by their corner of the show if we’re in the area.
They’ve got a pair of budget tablets that won’t really blow anyone away, but their new Shine pico projector looks really nice. → Read More
