Rob Beschizza

Schmidt's salary at Apple

Former Apple director Eric Schmidt was paid solely in Apple schwag. [Business Week]

Photo: -nathan.

Steven Leckart

What's So "Smart" About An Automated Kitchen?

Anvil Motion is revolutionizing the kitchen:

Simply wave your hand and cabinet panels and doors rise and fall vertically with precision, concealing or revealing contents. Using a wireless touch-screen device, cabinets can also be programmed to open in unison or individually through preprogrammed scenes that customize your living space to the need at hand. In the kitchen, for example, a baking scene would open cabinets that house ovens, baking implements and standard baking ingredients.

The hand-crafted kitchen also comes with "biometric security," which means future teenagers will have to drug their parents to commandeer eyes and/or faces just to raid the liquor cabinet.

Awesome.

[via New Launches via Gizmodiva via Electronic House]

Steven Leckart

Photos: Comic-Con Toys, Art & Tchotchkes

READ THE REST

Steven Leckart

Review: Platypus CleanStream Gravity Filter

"Oh man, you just turned our campsite into an ER!"

The CleanStream is a gravity filtration system that resembles an IV bag. Consisting of two Platypus bladders, two hoses, and one 0.2-micron-thick hollow fiber filter (w/a cartridge that's good for ~1500L), this $90 system can handle bacteria, protozoa, viruses and particulate &mdash i.e. the gunky yellow stuff that came out of the spigot at our campsite (see below).

The CleanStream is straightforward to use. After attaching the hoses to either end of the filter, you fill the "dirty" bag from your stream, spigot or other source (avoid shallow, still puddles!), and hang up the dirty bag, leaving the "clean" bag on the ground or somewhere below the dirty one. Instantly, gravity pulls the H2O down through the filter and into the "clean" bag. There's also a clip on the hose that lets you pause the filtering if, say, you need only a smaller quantity of water in one minute vs. three.

I will admit the spigot where we were camped was unlikely to have any contaminants, bacteria, etc. However, there's something about drinking yellow water that doesn't sit too well with me. Thus, we double-filtered our water, which dramatically reduced the yellow:

[Note: to avoid mixing up the bags during use, write "dirty" or "X" on the dirty bag with a Sharpie.]

Gravity filters aren't new, but this was my first time trying one out*. Reason being the $90 price tag makes it somewhat of a luxury item, imho. When I backpacked Hawaii for 2 months in college all I used were $7 for iodine tablets. I drank from streams and waterfalls and never got sick, but the taste wasn't terrific and using tablets required way too much time: drop in tablets, wait 30 minutes, and then another 30 minutes if you also use the taste-neutralizing tablets (which I did not).

At the time, though, the tablets were way more preferable to filtering with a hand-pump. After hiking 12 miles of rocky coastline, the last thing you want to do is expend energy just for a sip of fresh water. If you're car camping (which I was recently), you're likely partial to gear that will make the experience as cush and convenient as possible.

So for $90, you can have potable water in less than 3 minutes, literally, by doing nothing. Or you could spend $7 to have potable water in 30 minutes. Or you can spend somewhere in between on a hand-pump filter and get some added exercise. Your call.

*It's worth noting there are other systems some packers have been using in conjunction with Platypus bladders, including the Sawyer and Aquamira Frontier Pro. I have no personal experience with either.

Joel Johnson

Disposable Technology

Joel Johnson

Eve Ensler and "Rape-Free" Gadgets

In the Congo, explains Eve Ensler, militias use rape to fracture communities and the threat of sexual violence to coerce slave labor to mine coltan (a colloquial name for columbite-tantalite ore) which is used to produce capacitors that power cell phones, iPods, and other gadgets.

"We create those atrocities through our consumption," says Ensler.

She is proposing that electronics manufacturers and their customers—us—began to concern themselves with the notion of "Rape-Free" products in which the raw, mineral components of consumer electronics are traced back to sources that can be verified to have procured them ethically. (She allows that "Rape-Free" is probably not a moniker that would be comfortable plastered on boxes and signs.)

It's without a doubt one of the most horrible but compelling things I've heard in a while. I've been considering a parallel notion lately about the shocking rate we're using a limited mineral supply to make what are essentially disposable bits of gadgetry. While I don't doubt that every effort will be made by profit-driven corporations to develop ways to produce goods even if rare minerals are fully depleted, the gulf between now and a future where minerals can be safely reclaimed and reused is fretfully wide. [via Treehugger]

Steven Leckart

Hands-On With A Whippit-Powered Travel Espresso Maker

Currently in production, the MyPressi TWIST has been generating enough buzz to get a trucker from Nashville to Reno (and back). Forget press and blog attention. The $129 portable espresso maker won the best new product award from the Specialty Coffee Association of America (it's sorta like the Oscars for coffee).

The product won't be available until this fall, but there are three prototypes in existence. We recently got to see one up close and personal, taste the fruits of its pressure-driven loins, and chat with the husband and wife team behind one of the most exciting things to happen to coffee since Baileys.

More after the jump...

READ THE REST

Joel Johnson

Insulation and packing material made from rice hulls and fungus

Scientific American profiles the creators of "Greensulate", an organic insulation made from rice hulls, recycled paper, and fungus:

They incorporated three basic ingredients in a solution of water and hydrogen peroxide: mycelium mushroom roots; perlite, a glassy volcanic mineral used by farmers to aerate soil; and recycled paper. They poured the mixture into a seven-by-seven-inch (17.8 centimeters) plastic container and stuck it under a bed in their apartment (Greensulate must be kept in the dark while it is growing). The mycelium fed off the natural sugars in the recycled paper, causing it to grow, tightly bind the perlite, and take the shape of the plastic container. The perlite created small insulating air pockets within this new rigid, beige-colored panel, which they then baked at 110 degrees F (43.3 degrees C) to remove all water from the finished product and assure that mold and spores do not photosynthesize. Bayer and McIntyre also experimented by replacing perlite with rice hulls, which form similar air pockets. The rice hulls are roughly 10 times cheaper than perlite. Greensulate panel of any size can be grown in five to 14 days, Bayer says, and will last for the life of the building in which it is installed. Manufacturing space should come relatively cheap because all Bayer and McIntyre need is someplace big and dark. "It could be an old Kmart," McIntyre says, "or even an abandoned mine shaft."

Rob Beschizza

That's $3,000 of Zen, right there.

This was once an Acer Aspire One, an inexpensive netbook.

It is now a "Fully Zen Decorated" Acer Aspire One, available on eBay for $3,000 or more.

History: 0 bids.

Via Born Rich.

Joel Johnson

Best Buy's "community" forum flags "Buy.com" as offensive

"Buy.com" Is Apparently A Curse Word On Best Buy's Forums [Consumerist]

Joel Johnson

"You already own all these wonderful things. Enjoy them today."

Kottke saw Objectified ():

Some interesting moments from the Objectified screening last night.

- Rob Walker, who writes the Consumed column for the NY Times Magazine, was my favorite person in the movie. I particularly liked his idea for a million-dollar marketing campaign for the stuff we already own. Paraphrasing from memory: "You already own all these wonderful things. Enjoy them today."

Joel Johnson

Gallery of "electrical cabling gone wild"

I recall the old police shack in Times Square dripping with cables stretching all over the back wall, but the new shack must have finally put those all underground. [Gallery @ Royal Pingdom]

Joel Johnson

Milk the Rich: Purisme carbon fiber bangle

Purisme sells this lovely carbon fiber bracelet for a maddening €590.

Carbon Mods UK will sell you a single A5-sized sheet of carbon fiber for $14.30.

Joel Johnson

ShamWow versus Zorbeez: Two men enter, don't both die in a fire because there is no god

There's a rivalry in Hucksterville, as Billy Mays has called out Shamwow's pitchman Vince Offer to claim that the Zorbeez chamois was the original and bitch shouldn't front, etc. According to PopMech there was even some rapping involved, I'm sure to the embarrassment of everyone but those who make a living by being shameless.

PopMech tested out both. Turns out Shamwow is a lot better.

But here's the thing: they're both just synthetic chamois. And they're nothing new. You can pop down to your local auto parts store and pick up the classic "The Absorber" for about ten bucks. Same stuff (or better), comes in a handy protective case, lasts for years, and won't entice anyone to rap.

Above, a video showing how similar the pitches are for both the Shamwow and the Zorbeez. The Shamwow may be a better product, but they definitely ripped off Billy Mays. But who cares about Billy Mays?

Joel Johnson

Laptop: Office Depot salespeople lie about inventory if you don't buy extra laptop accessories

According to a report from Laptop, several Office Depot employees have been lying to customers from whom they don't expect to make a "good" sale:

According to several LAPTOP readers, including a current Office Depot employee we interviewed, the retailer’s sales staff are under such intense pressure to sell such “attachments” as Product Protection Plans or Tech Depot Services that many will tell customers who turn down these services that the computer they asked for is not in stock, even when it’s sitting right there in the stock room.

Joel Johnson

Commercial: Loewe Sound

This commercial for Loewe televisions, available in Germany, does not require you to adjust your volume. (Slick-looking televisions, too.) (Thanks, Florian!)

Joel Johnson

Liquidating Circuit City corporate

Richmond BizSense has produced this surprisingly compelling video showing the liquidation of Circuit City's corporate headquarters. The strings in the background, the snow covered sign outside, the frustration in the liquidation manager's voice—it's intense.

Like the liquidation of the retail stores, it doesn't look like you're missing out on many deals.

Related • Assessing Circuit City's impact [slideshow] [Boston.com]

Joel Johnson

Buzludzha, the abandoned UFO amphitheater of Bulgaria

[Artificial Owl via MicroKhan]

Joel Johnson

Gary Hustwit, director of Objectified, talks design, baby strollers, and streamlining our lifestyles

Gary Hustwit made the biggest design geek film of recent memory: Helvetica. Now he's gearing up for a follow up that casts its net a little wider; Objectified will look at the objects we own, the humans who design them, and how we're all intertwined.

We sat down with Gary in a rustic email client overlooking a limpet field of packets to ask him about filming the documentary and how it's changed his own relationship with his objects.

Let's look back a little. How has object ownership changed in the last few decades?

30 or 40 years ago consumers put more thought into every purchase, took better care of their manufactured objects, and repaired them when they were broken. Who repairs their DVD player now? Come to think of it, who even buys a new DVD player now? We've had a totally new technology like DVD go from introduction, to being in almost every home in the country, to being practically obsolete, in just ten years. And obviously the concept of owning media in the form of tangible objects (CDs, DVDs) has completely changed. But lately people are consuming less, whether for economic reasons or environmental ones. Personally, I just feel like I don't really need so much stuff, and the objects that I do have should be really meaningful.

Is there a way to rectify the problem of owning items, especially gadgets and consumer electronics, that by the nature of progress must continually be upgraded?

I thought the original iPhone was a step in the right direction, since it was screen-based and the software could just be upgraded. But then a year later, hello, here's the 3G iPhone. I still have my 1st generation model. But I used to have a cell phone, a digital camera, a Palm Pilot, a portable hard drive...so instead of five or six gadgets needing constant upgrading, at least now I just have one. So that type of convergence or dematerialization will continue to evolve.

Did it feel to you in your interviews that the designers are isolated from the real world use of the products?

READ THE REST

Joel Johnson

Experiment: Dissolving starch packing peanuts

Above: A sink full of starch packing peanuts soaking in hot water.

Below: The results, 24 hours later.

Conclusion: These packing peanuts are made of plastic.

Joel Johnson

The Impossible Project: Firing up an old Polaroid instant film factory

"Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible." – Edwin Land, Inventor of Instant Photography

That's the quote that opens "The Impossible Project", a group of obdurate men who have purchased the old Polaroid factory in Enschede, Netherlands, with the aim to restart production of instant film.

Producing instant film for a ratty old camera, no matter how charming it may be, is hardly "manifestly important", especially considering the environmental toll of instant film. (Which is not to draw a distinction between instant and traditional film, but instead to point out that there is the need for plastic, metals, and chemicals to produce a photo at all. [Besides the camera, but don't you dare...])

The "nearly impossible" part of their endeavor seems at first overwrought: can't they just turn the machines back on? Not exactly. Presuming they could secure the same reagents used by Polaroid, the exact process used is still entwined in patents like good ol' 6,227,729, which gives Polaroid the rights to a "film cassette for housing and dispensing film units of the self-developing type" until 2019.

But that's not what The Impossible Project claims to want to do. Their stated aim is to "develop a new product with new characteristics, consisting of new optimised components, produced with a streamlined modern setup. An innovative and fresh analog material, sold under a new brand name that perfectly will match the global re-positioning of Integral Films."

I understand that film for Polaroids is getting insultingly expensive. I understand that these guys miss shooting with their Polaroids. It just seems like an awful lot of effort to go through to recreate something that is not just antiquated, but practically obviated by modern technology. See that photo above? I shot it with my iPhone and processed it on the phone with Camera Bag before uploading it to Flickr with Mobile Photos. If I wanted to, I could print out a copy on a home printer or have one of Flickr's parters send me a copy. But instead I can show it instantly to my friends on my phone as well as anyone else in the world online. I find it nearly impossible to understand how that isn't better than shooting with a Polaroid instant in nearly every way.

[via this supremely interesting Metafilter thread]

Joel Johnson

Circuit City ist kaputt

RICHMOND, Va., Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Circuit City Stores, Inc. announced today that it will seek Bankruptcy Court approval to begin the process to liquidate the assets of the company.

"We are extremely disappointed by this outcome. The company had been in continuous negotiations regarding a going concern transaction. Regrettably for the more than 30,000 employees of Circuit City and our loyal customers, we were unable to reach an agreement with our creditors and lenders to structure a going-concern transaction in the limited timeframe available, and so this is the only possible path for our company," said James A. Marcum, vice chairman and acting president and chief executive officer for Circuit City Stores, Inc.

Circuit City Stores, Inc. to Liquidate [PRNewsWire.com]

Image: *bri*

Joel Johnson

The paranoid luxury lifestyle of a corrupt Fry's executive

More on the ostentatious lifestyle of Ausaf Umar Siddiqui, the Fry's Electronics executive who blew $120 million in Las Vegas casinos over three years, then tried to embezzle money to cover his gambling debts. From Mercury News:

Fiji water, grouped in bottles of three. Golden raisins and warmed mixed nuts. Aramis cologne and badger hair shaving brush. Lint-free towels. Dom Perignon Rose champagne and Kurosawa Sake in the fridge. And never, under any circumstances, approach him from behind.

If they didn't want to face Mr. S's wrath, maids knew to arrange bowls of Glitterati Mentissimo peppermints adorned with a single rose throughout his suite, and to stock his shower with Nioxin shampoo for "fine and thinning hair." White vases were a no-no — he considered them bad luck.

Casino profile details luxurious lifestyle of former Fry's executive [MercuryNews.com]

Previously • Fry's exec busted for $65MM embezzlement scheme, Vegas flings

Image: Geek7

Joel Johnson

Gallery of abandoned exotic cars

Abandoned exotic cars — left to rot in dank alleys, to fade in the hot sun, to be stripped for parts in war zones — are featured in this heartbreakingly forlorn gallery. The images are all SFW, but some of the participants' avatars are not.

Abandoned exotics. What have you discovered? [SupercarForums.co.uk] (Thanks, Honad!)

Joel Johnson

CES: Those Darn Woot Boys

Seems the boys of Woot want a little blog tussle, seeing how they called us out over coffee and EVDO driver downloads outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center this morning.

Their challenge? Find the most flagrant display of extravagance at CES this year; the most inappropriately luxurious or wasteful image of gaudy consumerism wins. We'll put up our entries this evening on Woot and BBG and then — after listening to your measured commentary — declare ourselves the winner.

Take that, old media!

Rob Beschizza

Wii, iPhone and Flip winning because of recession, says NYT

Damon Darlin of the New York Times thinks that the Wii's success since November 2006 was a "leading economic indicator" of a recession that began a year later and wasn't confirmed until 2008.

THE National Bureau of Economic Research hardly stunned the nation this month when it announced that the United States had been in recession since December 2007. Nintendo, which has sold more than 30 million Wii game consoles, is now offering add-ons like the Wii Fit.

And, as it turns out, the buyers of consumer electronics could very well have been a leading economic indicator. Over the last year, they chose to buy two inexpensive and simple products, the Wii and the Flip, over competing gadgets bristling with more features.

Darlin's piece is a good example of how reporters use emotive adjectives to build stories that couldn't work without them.

Using the Wii is "dimwittedly" simple. Changes in resolution and math-crunching power become "deep" and "rich." The distinction between Dolby pro-logic and Dolby digital, absurdly offered as a consumer concern, is that the latter is "rumbling."

Sometimes the technique works well, explaining why a dry story matters. The NYT's own stories on the Large Hadron Collider spring to mind. But it fails when trying to illustrate formulaic heelglue like "people buy cheap and simple things in hard times."

And so we leap from global economic meltdown to discussion of technical differences between gadgets. The tech-biz beat is full of bathos like this. It's technology as a prop in the Bigger Picture, drained of what makes it interesting to write about.

That said, I'd like to see the next paragraph worked up as the intro text to a Zero Wing-style Japanese video game, setting the scene for a crisis the player must resolve with great justice:

As the United States enters a deflationary period, all kinds of companies will have to grapple with the consequences of falling prices. This is nothing new for electronics makers. Every year, competition and the effects of Moore’s Law forced prices down. ... Feature-itis was a disease, but it was better than the affliction known as consumer boredom.

The Year of the Simpler Gadget [NYT]

Rob Beschizza

"Cuteness, design, technology, luxury, kitsch" - A Q&A with Gizmine's Douglas Krone

Ever been sent by a gadget blog to the product page of some wonderful foreign tech-tchotchke, only to find it impossible to buy the damn thing? Enter Gizmine, a U.S.-operated online store that ships bizarre goods worldwide from Japan.

A sister site to Dynamism, which imports ultra-portable computers that Americans would otherwise be hard-pressed to find, it was launched a few weeks ago by Dynamism's CEO Douglas Krone.

I fired off some questions about his unusual line of business. Here are his replies.

BBG: What's the story behind Dynamism?

Krone: Dynamism became famous for supplying early-adopters around the world with the latest and greatest, direct from Japan. As the business grew, it evolved into a focus on high-end mobility--focused on a limited selection of products that is best-of-class and cutting-edge in every category. You'll find the latest gadgets from Japan, innovative 1-pound PCs from Korea, exclusive mobile phones, even the world's first consumer-focused RFID reader from a French designer. So Dynamism is a boutique-like shopping experience and coupled with a heavy emphasis on personalized customer service--our goal is that you feel like you are dealing with a luxury hotel concierge that happens to be a tech expert. It's all a great model, but we wanted something different for Gizmine.

BBG: Why Gizmine?

Krone: Shopping in Tokyo is a chaotic, sensory overload experience partly thanks to compellingly unique gadgets, cuteness, design, technology, luxury, kitsch -- and extra helpings of gadgets and cuteness.  We wanted to bring a taste of that experience to shoppers all over the world.  Of course, with some of the Gizmine gadgets--and again just as if you were shopping in Tokyo--there is liberal use of Japanese. Many of the digital pets purr in a foreign language, and some things are just so wacky that buyers really need to have a sense of adventure.

BBG: What challenges presented themselves as you went about developing the new online store?

Krone: The focus is totally different from Dynamism. Figuring out how to deliver that shopping-in-Shibuya rush, given our ambition to offer hundreds of products with which people might have no familiarity, was interesting.  It ends up a shopping nightmare or addictive fun. Since we were trying for the latter, the site is clean and visually driven.

As you walk through the aisle of your favorite store, nobody chatters in your ear. For Gizmine, products are bliss and text is bad. Even our mouseover product descriptions don't interfere with the product view. That product view is like looking on the shelf of your favorite store, but with better search options. Maybe you only want to see blue gadgets, or maybe only blue gadgets with a skull theme. 

BBG: People talk a lot about the recession affecting consumer electronics and luxuries: have you felt the bite?

Krone: Especially in October, there were some days that people weren't spending, but consumption seems to be steadily recovering since then. However, as they say, it is still in recovery. Even so, Christmas shopping has been pretty healthy. Perhaps it is because we are delivering things that are new and unique, with so many "no way" gadgets at stocking stuffer price points, that Gizmine is off to a great start. But, I don't think our experience can be extrapolated to the broader economy or the really big electronics makers.

BBG: What is it about these imports that casts such a spell on us?

Krone: Japan's consumers think clever technology and great design is just precious! Not just avant-garde consumers (the market we target in the world outside Japan), but the vast majority. And that means fantastic things get made and marketed, things that can't be found anywhere else.  They cast a spell on us because good design is innately appealing, we love whimsy, and we appreciate the intellectual quality of dumb gadgets.

Gizmine delivers globally from Japan.

Rob Beschizza

eBay: More Wiis sold through us than Xbox360s and PS3s put together

• Nintendo Wii: 2,056,866 related items sold
• Microsoft Xbox360: 1,297,903 related items sold
• Sony PSP: 350,591 related items sold
• iPod Touch: 281,361 related items sold
• Nintendo Wii Fit: 266,584 related items sold
• Apple iPhone 3G: 212,837 related items sold
• BlackBerry Pearl: 207,688 related items sold
• BlackBerry Curve: 193,788 related items sold
• Sony Playstation 3: 103,333 related items sold
• Guitar Hero III: 98,159 related items sold
• Halo 3: 91,067 related items sold
• Grand Theft Auto IV: 43,005 related items sold
• MacBook Air: 12,423 related items sold
• Guitar Hero Aerosmith: 3,749 related items sold
• Rock Band 2's: 1,650 related items sold

Joel Johnson

Hipster Albino Santa Christ to save Palm's Christmas

The only thing that really upsets me about this campaign is that I was pretty sure Hipster Albino Santa Christ was my schtick. Guess I'm buying a Centro now.

The mistletoe is made of oxycontin [Palm.com]

Joel Johnson

Swinging Apple baffles

Outside the Apple Soho store, a little bite of commentary. Or just a visual pun! A hobo warding? House sparrow tetherball? I do not know.

Image: Adam Lawrence (And thanks!)