Doug Aamoth…

Overview and Features:

FyreTV is a set top box that streams on-demand video (perhaps not the kind of video you’re thinking of) for $9.95 per month. The box itself is free and the monthly fee gets you 100 credits good for between 50 and 100 minutes of video (the kind of video only grown-ups should watch). Standard titles are one credit per minute, new releases are 1.5 credits per minute, and premium content from certain production companies is two credits per minute.

The hardware features Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections, HDMI/component/composite video outputs, two dormant USB ports, and a remote control. The service doesn’t require a monthly contract but if you quit, you’ll need to return the box to FyreTV.

Pros:

• Really impressive video quality – videos start streaming almost instantly
• Relatively affordable provided you have some self control
• Hardware itself is small and discrete

Cons:

• You’re forever renting content, never owning it – everything is streamed
• Remote control is pretty bad – buttons are hard to press and its short, stocky form makes it awkward to use

Halvsies

• No HD content, although a firmware upgrade is coming soon. Some would argue that certain things are best left in standard-definition, though.

Check out the video above for the full review…

Product Page [FyreTV.com]

Take seven strategically-placed speakers and cover them in soft foam and Italian leather and you’ve got yourself the BodySound Recliner, starting at $5,995. According to the company, the chair “eliminates the need for in-room loudspeakers” by addressing “the need for full impact, large scale sound in a smaller space.”

This “experiential seating,” as its called is not only good for watching TV and movies but can also “produce profound relaxation and deeper states of meditation.” I’m sure the speakers have something to do with that, but it might also be the Italian leather and the ability to spend $6000 on a chair. I know I’d be relaxed no matter what.

You can build your own chair at the BodySound website and even string multiple chairs together for theater-style seating if your wallet can take it.

BodySound Technologies [BodySoundTheater.com]

Thanks for sending this in, Mom! Yes, that’s right. My mom feeds me tech news sometimes.

Christian Susana of Germany came up with this concept of a motor home with a detachable front car for tooling around on day trips, going to restaurants, and whatnot. Susana is calling it “Colim” for Colors of Life in Motion.

Well, at least the idea’s there. We’ll have marketing come up with a better name like the Transformobot 6000 or RoadRipper 2K9 or TravelPuncher.

The detachable cockpit has a top speed of 90 mph and the entire shebang can sleep four. It’s apparently more fuel-efficient than a traditional motor home, too. Lest you think this is merely a concept, Susana is currently looking for a company to start building these things.

[via Likecool]

Microsoft has a patent floating around for “a universal smart interface and peripheral management system for portable devices such as mobile phones.” You’d dock your phone into this thing, which would connect to a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and just about anything else that could be plugged into it – even your TV.

So when you see those gray-haired technology experts in the newspaper or on TV saying, “Someday you’ll use your cell phone for everything. You’ll use it while you’re out and about all day and when you get home, you’ll use it as your main computer,” like they’ve been saying for the past 25 years, this device from Microsoft is what they had in mind.

Here’s more:

The smart system includes a connector interface that connects peripherals to a phone and/or personal digital assistant (PDA), through the smart system. The smart system includes a cradle for receiving a cell phone and interfacing the phone to external systems such as peripherals, networks and other systems through a USB hub and other suitable connector interfaces. The peripheral devices to which the smart system can interface include, but are not limited to, large displays (e.g., television), external monitors, input devices such as mice and keyboards, external storage devices, and networks (wired and/or wireless). The smart system also facilitates connectivity to large display systems such as TVs, computer displays and monitors.

Another interesting feature is “a processor and memory component for storing and executing an OS and an application in support of communications between the mobile phone, the peripheral devices, and the network.” So it looks like Microsoft would leverage its Windows Embedded platform to help offload a fair amount of the processing tasks from the phone.

This patent was filed in late 2007 so it’ll probably still be a while before we’d see something materialize. Still, it looks like a pretty good idea.

Patent [via SlashGear]

It’s true what they say: Little kids love the BlackBerry. Imagine the message you’re sending to your kids by having your own big boy BlackBerry glued to your face all the time. They want to be like mommy and daddy and mommy and daddy have two kids and two BlackBerry devices, which equals a family of six. Naturally, your little ones want their own QWERTY-enhanced handhelds.

David Carnoy at CNet says that this product is “sure to be known in the blogosphere [as the] ‘baby BlackBerry’.” You can’t make up a nickname for something and then say that all the other bloggers will surely call it the same thing, Carnoy! Why don’t I just give myself an awesome nickname like “Lovecrusher” or “Dr. Blogswell” or “The Pants Man” while we’re at it?

Unfortunately, he’s probably right about this one as “Baby BlackBerry” is pretty fitting. Still, as a matter of principle, I’ll hereby refer to it as the “KidZ Rule! Extreme Self-Texting Apparatus,” or KRESTA.

The Text & Learn (KRESTA) will cost $25 when it hits the states this summer and will be geared at preschool aged kids, featuring simple spelling and word activities along with fake text messaging and web browsing. It won’t have any actual connections, though. Just pretend Wi-Fi, WiMAX, EVDO, LTE, Bluetooth, Ham Radio, and whatever else your youngster dreams up.

[via Crave]

You guys read about gadgets all day, right? Some of you probably have great ideas for products you’d like to see that haven’t been invented yet. If you share those ideas with Hammacher Schlemmer you could win a minimum of $2,500 plus 20 years worth of a percentage of every product sold through the catalog.

The “Innovative Product Search,” as its called, is being held in cooperation with Edison Nation. Ah, and here’s the catch. You’ll need to pay “a small fee” to Edison Nation for them to review your product or idea. Here’s more:

“For a small fee, Edison Nation will research the market and manufacturing potential for your idea and will conduct an intellectual property review. If your product is chosen, you will receive a $2,500 minimum advance from Edison Nation. You will also enjoy the unique possibility that your invention could be sold online and in our catalog, enabling you to receive royalties based on the national sales of your product.”

It’s only $25 per idea, which I suppose isn’t all that bad considering the possible payout.

Edison Nation can help turn your ideas or patents into actual products sold by Hammacher Schlemmer [Hammacher.com]

We talk about the “cell phone camera noise” law, Linux, secondhand MP3 players full of secret military files, and useless features of point-and-shoot cameras. Plus, Stefan from Nokia calls in and discusses the demise of the N810 WiMAX Edition.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/CrunchGear/2009/01/28/CrunchGear-and-Friends

In an interview with Laptop Magazine, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang talks about the current state of netbooks, his company’s new Ion platform, rumors about Intel’s supposed strong-arming of device manufacturers, and other netbook and MID platforms from AMD, VIA, along with the probability behind netbooks powered by NVIDIA’s own Tegra platform.

On the current state of netbooks, Huang believes that they’re too underpowered to run modern software from the likes of EA, Adobe, and Microsoft, the three largest software companies in the world. The biggest area where netbooks are lacking is — surprise, surprise – in the graphics department. Huang believes that adding better GPUs to netbooks would improve things a lot.

Apparently, putting NVIDIA’s Ion GPU in a netbook would only add $30 to $40 to the price but it would also replace the Northbridge and the Southbridge, bringing that total back down a bit. “Almost every single OEM in the world is exploring it,” according to Huang, although he didn’t give a definite timeframe about when we’d see Ion-based computers on the market.

When asked about Intel’s take on Ion, specifically about rumors “that Intel is discouraging the uptake of Ion by forcing customers to buy the Atom processor and Intel’s chipset as a bundle,” Huang stated that he’d heard rumors but “couldn’t understand why Intel would limit great PCs from reaching the market. Great PCs help Intel. Great PCs help humanity.” He goes on to say:

“I would hope that Intel isn’t doing anything to prevent consumers from getting the most innovative products, in this case, built around Atom, their own processor. I think consumers would be really disappointed if they learned that Intel is sabotaging their ability to get access to breakthrough technologies…

…It’s the OEM’s responsibility and prerogative to design systems around technology components. We’re a technology component company, and Intel’s a technology component company. It’s weird for me to tell somebody the type of computers they can design. I thought they were supposed to take all of these tech components and build amazing products from them by mixing and matching and differentiating. I would be disappointed to learn that Intel is doing something to keep innovation from progressing, and keep end users from getting the best products out there.”

On the subject of other competing platforms, Huang said that up against AMD’s Neo platform, “Atom by itself with integrated graphics would get crushed” but that “Atom plus Ion will give Neo a good run for its money.” He says he likes VIA’s Nano platform, saying that “it’s architecturally one generation beyond Atom” but that VIA lacks “the resources to build the GPU into the system to be competitive.” NVIDIA plans to support integrating Ion with Nano in the future, though.

Finally, when asked about Tegra, NVIDIA’s platform for smartphones and mobile internet devices, Huang said that it’d be able to power a ten-inch screen capable of displaying HD and 3D content with a full keyboard running Windows Mobile or Windows CE for two or three days before needing a recharge. The price of such a devices would be around $199.

“You can create a full keyboard device with about a 10-inch display. With a 10-inch display and a full keyboard you also have the opportunity to include a full notebook battery. You could have a two- or three-day computing experience without another charge. Now you’re talking about a device that exceeds the users’ expectations, and delight them in a way that would cause them to buy the product and keep it. I expect to see $199 full notebook–form factor MIDs, based on Windows Mobile and Windows CE; based on processors like Tegra with full HD capability, but consume less than a watt. It’s like a little motorcycle with a tanker behind it. How far can you go? Well, around the earth. Telcos could be giving them away for Internet access as part of  your cable service. I fully expect to see a whole new class of MIDs with full keyboards.”

Now THAT actually sounds interesting. Might make a great blogging machine.

Nvidia CEO Sounds Off on Netbooks, Ion Platform, Tegra, and MIDs [Laptop]

In an interview with Laptop Magazine, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang talks about the current state of netbooks, his company’s new Ion platform, rumors about Intel’s supposed strong-arming of device manufacturers, and other netbook and MID platforms from AMD, VIA, along with the probability behind netbooks powered by NVIDIA’s own Tegra platform.

On the current state of netbooks, Huang believes that they’re too underpowered to run modern software from the likes of EA, Adobe, and Microsoft, the three largest software companies in the world. The biggest area where netbooks are lacking is — surprise, surprise – in the graphics department. Huang believes that adding better GPUs to netbooks would improve things a lot.

Apparently, putting NVIDIA’s Ion GPU in a netbook would only add $30 to $40 to the price but it would also replace the Northbridge and the Southbridge, bringing that total back down a bit. “Almost every single OEM in the world is exploring it,” according to Huang, although he didn’t give a definite timeframe about when we’d see Ion-based computers on the market.

When asked about Intel’s take on Ion, specifically about rumors “that Intel is discouraging the uptake of Ion by forcing customers to buy the Atom processor and Intel’s chipset as a bundle,” Huang stated that he’d heard rumors but “couldn’t understand why Intel would limit great PCs from reaching the market. Great PCs help Intel. Great PCs help humanity.” He goes on to say:

“I would hope that Intel isn’t doing anything to prevent consumers from getting the most innovative products, in this case, built around Atom, their own processor. I think consumers would be really disappointed if they learned that Intel is sabotaging their ability to get access to breakthrough technologies…

…It’s the OEM’s responsibility and prerogative to design systems around technology components. We’re a technology component company, and Intel’s a technology component company. It’s weird for me to tell somebody the type of computers they can design. I thought they were supposed to take all of these tech components and build amazing products from them by mixing and matching and differentiating. I would be disappointed to learn that Intel is doing something to keep innovation from progressing, and keep end users from getting the best products out there.”

On the subject of other competing platforms, Huang said that up against AMD’s Neo platform, “Atom by itself with integrated graphics would get crushed” but that “Atom plus Ion will give Neo a good run for its money.” He says he likes VIA’s Nano platform, saying that “it’s architecturally one generation beyond Atom” but that VIA lacks “the resources to build the GPU into the system to be competitive.” NVIDIA plans to support integrating Ion with Nano in the future, though.

Finally, when asked about Tegra, NVIDIA’s platform for smartphones and mobile internet devices, Huang said that it’d be able to power a ten-inch screen capable of displaying HD and 3D content with a full keyboard running Windows Mobile or Windows CE for two or three days before needing a recharge. The price of such a devices would be around $199.

“You can create a full keyboard device with about a 10-inch display. With a 10-inch display and a full keyboard you also have the opportunity to include a full notebook battery. You could have a two- or three-day computing experience without another charge. Now you’re talking about a device that exceeds the users’ expectations, and delight them in a way that would cause them to buy the product and keep it. I expect to see $199 full notebook–form factor MIDs, based on Windows Mobile and Windows CE; based on processors like Tegra with full HD capability, but consume less than a watt. It’s like a little motorcycle with a tanker behind it. How far can you go? Well, around the earth. Telcos could be giving them away for Internet access as part of  your cable service. I fully expect to see a whole new class of MIDs with full keyboards.”

Now THAT actually sounds interesting. Might make a great blogging machine.

Nvidia CEO Sounds Off on Netbooks, Ion Platform, Tegra, and MIDs [Laptop]

Looks like Motorola will be pairing a keyboard with push-to-talk in the i465, due sometime this year. The immediacy of text messaging is great, yes, overshadowed only by the immediacy of instantly speaking to someone using a nationwide walkie-talkie, so this handset ought to cover all the need-to-talk-ASAP bases.

The phone’s OS isn’t anything fancy but let’s assume Moto’s concentrating more on function than form. There’s not too much other information about the device other than it’ll have Bluetooth and a VGA camera. Pricing, availability, and carrier(s) aren’t yet known.

[via Engadget]