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I’ve made no secret of my disdain for Katie Couric and her Morning Show brand of “news,” replete with softball interviews, oversimplifications and gimmicks. So I laughed out loud when Engadget uncovered in 2 great clips that show just how crappy these shows really are. They make The Daily Show, nee, Weekend Update on SNL seem like Cronkite and Murrow. Look at how they parrot the Apple company line on these two product showcases all for the sake of “the get” - including an unfortunate Milli Vanilli / Ashlee Simpson moment:

There’s nothing quite like hearing a group of network talk-show hosts heaping praise on a piece of technology they barely understand to jumpstart your day. We think you’ll agree that listening to Matt Lauer loudly declare “It’s awesome!” and watching Meredith “You’re blowing the whole schtick” Viera vigorously mime licking the new MacBook Air is pretty wretch-inducing stuff — though Al Roker informing us that if you want the SSD, you’ll only have to pay “a little bit more,” was definitely one toke over the line. Thanks for ruining our breakfast guys. Every breakfast.

Today Show with the Macbook Air


Today Show botching the iPhone demo

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I don’t like where this is going. An $1800 feature-stripped laptop is considered Apple innovation? This year’s Macworld introduced the thin MacBook Air to the world, the worst kept secret since Santa Claus. The specs are ok, but it seems to be more about that it’s missing than what it has:

• There’s no optical drive - allowing it to be ultra thin. There’s a separate USB-powered SuperDrive that you can add on for $100.
• There’s a multi touch trackpad. While I can see the benefit on a keyboardless iPhone, I’m not sure what this buys you on a laptop.
• Remote Disk was announced to allow you to drive-share from another PC or Mac. Interesting, but seems like basic file sharing to me. I know I know - Netbooting ability. Should be the last resort, not the first.
• It uses a 1.8″ 80 Gig Hard drive that can be upgraded to a 64Gig SSD for a cool $1000!
• There’s no RJ-45 Ethernet jack. You have to use the 802.11n radio to connect to the network or buy the USB Ethernet adapter for $30.
• No Stereo speaker and no Mic jack. You either have to use the built in mic, or connect a USB solution like the iMic.
• There’s no user replaceable battery. You have to take your machine in to change batteries - which will make it a bit useless on long flights if you’re stuck in coach with a bunch of Hanbraked DVDs sitting on your hard drive.
• And the most jarring for me - there’s only one USB port. So if you want to use your external SuperDrive, your USB Ethernet adapter and your iMic, you’ll have to timeshare. that USB Port or get a powered hub.

This is innovation? Other than form factor, I don’t really see anything typical of Apple’s innovation. It’s a completely wireless machine that’s more inflexible than any other Apple computer hardware I’ve ever seen. It’s all style - no function. And to pay for $1800 for the privilege? No way, Cupertino. Not even the fanboys can save this one. They’re even calling it the next Cube.

I noticed this trend of a slow gravitation toward expensive appliances when the iPhone was released with no SDK and discouraging innovation. Speaking of which, no HSDPA iPhone was announced either. Hello? AT&T has the towers up - what’s the delay? It’s not like HSDPA phones don’t exist. And if you’re touting the iPhone as a web surfing tool, 3G speed is essential. Not everyone will be near open wifi and browsing content-rich sites like Youtube on EDGE speed is like driving a Ferrari in quicksand.

The one thing that was announced that piqued my interest was a newer, cheaper Apple TV:

• Price: $229
• Computer: Unnecessary. You can link directly to the iTunes store through your Apple TV and download without the computer as a middleman. (Though, if you do have a computer, you can sync the content on your Apple TV to your computer and vice versa).
• Content
  • 600 TV shows ($1.99 a piece)
  • all of the podcasts available on iTunes
  • anything already in your iTunes library
  • over 50 million videos from YouTube
  • your pictures — not only what’s on your computer, but there’s also now flikr.com support.
  • and, finally, the big news: movie rentals! You can get DVD quality movie rentals ($2.99 for catalog titles, $3.99 for new releases) or HD quality (with 5.1 surround sound) for a dollar more. The movies are available for viewing up to 30 days after you rent them and you’ll have them for 24 hours once you actually start watching them.

Now that’s what I’m talking about. And thanks to the innovators out there - there are tons of ways to make this thing more useful. Also of note is Time Capsule, a wireless NAS whose low price apparently is making some Airport Extreme purcharers upset. Both of these may be worth the cost. But I must say the Macbook Air disappointed. And I’m glad to see I’m not alone.

We already have diskless wireless thin laptops. In fact the Asus EEE is a much better option in terms of price and flexibility if not thinness. It has 3 USB ports and an IDE-connected SDHC reader that allows endless expansion on even the cheapest unit. It has a 7 inch screen although a 9 incher is in the works. What would have made the Air revolutionary to me is not the size, per say, but the technology trend setting. Apple revolutionized the PC space by pushing USB. This time around, pushing Wireless USB on a machine meant to be completely wireless would have made more of an impact to me.

I also would have been interested if (and indeed was hoping that) this secret computer would have been the long rumored Newton successor. Although it seems Apple’s interest in Tablet computing only extends to the patent stage, Axiotron just released their MacBook-modding tablet solution, the Modbook. It has some nice specs and a tolerable price tag. However, I suspect that it would be a lot cheaper to build it the first time instead of hack it up. Perhaps Apple is seeing how popular this becomes before it puts them out of business by releasing their own tablet. I can only hope.

For now, I’ll focus on the cheap, flexible and hackable as well as stylish solutions like the AppleTV, Asus EEE, Time Capsule, and even the new $99 Shuttle Linux kPC.

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Getting caught up on all my Tech reading:

This I can’t wait to see. Apple has really been innovating in the past decade and have influenced so much in consumer electronics as well as personal computers. This slim notebook rumor is virtually guaranteed to come true (as Apple can’t hide it’s stuff anymore) but what I really want is a new Apple Newton!

Sure, you’ve had the space of a few minutes without Apple rumors, but be honest with us: it felt lonely, didn’t it? Well don’t worry, because the rumors are back… with a vengeance. According to 9to5mac (who recently nailed news on the iPod nano), Apple is readying a new line of black and silver aluminum laptops, which might be the slimmer MacBook Pros mentioned previously. Details are, of course, totally speculative and entirely unconfirmed, but it sounds like the systems will be considerably thinner and lighter than current models, will have screens that reach further to the edges (which apparently suggests a smaller footprint), have keyboards in the vein of the new Apple Bluetooth models, and are set to be priced “extremely aggressively.” In addition, the report says that there is “something strange about the touchpad,” which could mean we’ll be seeing some sort of multi-touch functionality, or it could mean nothing at all. We’ll keep you posted on what the mill has to say.

Check out the new form factor of UMPC coming out now. It looks like a souped up PSP!

We caught a peek of Asus‘ R3 UMPC / MID yesterday, but it got shown off in a little more detail today during a presentation on Adobe’s AIR platform. No word on which variation of Intel’s Menlow platform it’ll be sporting, but it looks like the device will have a 4.8-inch screen with 1024 x 600 resolution, a fingerprint reader, webcam, and built-in GPS.

Online web apps are getting smarter. This one lets you convert audio and video file formats online.

YouconvertIt is a new web-based file conversion service. Like Zamzar, YouconvertIt lets you upload audio, video, image, or document files and convert from one format to another. Just select the file from your computer to upload, select your target format, and the web service will send you an e-mail when your new file is ready to download. Unlike Zamzar, YouconvertIt doesn’t appear to have a file size limit (although that may change), and currently has no advertising (which will definitely change). Oh yeah, and you can convert units like miles, kilometers, inches, and feet.

Learn a new language with the new Mango Beta.

The first Free enterprise language learning course available on the Internet. Eleven of our courses are now available in our beta release. Each course has 100 lessons available.

Free iTunes downloads at Starbucks? Time to get a coffee.

Beginning October 2, when you order your double latte, you can get a free “song of the day” iTunes download card at Starbucks. The coffee giant is giving away 50 million downloads to promote its new “Now Playing” service which displays the name of the song playing in the Starbucks store at that moment, and allows customers to buy and download songs or albums directly to their device.

More free iTunes goodness - this time from Fox.

Apparently it’s free internet TV week. First NBC announced it would be launching a free video download service. Then ABC announced it would stream free episodes through AOL. And now Fox is offering free downloads of series/season premieres of 7 shows. You’ll be able to download the episodes from Apple’s iTunes store. The episodes are commercial free, and the goal is to build buzz for the Fox programs.

Uh oh. Here comes the beginning of the end of something big - like consumer choice. That’s why I roll my own PVR.

EchoStar Communications, the company behind the Dish Network satellite service has agreed to buy Sling Media for $380 million. Sling Media is the maker of the popular Slingbox place-shifting device.

UPDATE: See what I mean? The monopoly returns - and it only means that the cool innovative native slingbox innovation will no doubt be eroded into a one-size-fits-all offering that limits choice.

And finally the ultimate birthday gift - a toy tank. Adult tank!

If you are ready to reenact Rommel’s campaign in North Africa, vandalize any wall in sight or look like Atom Ant, here’s the Paintball Panzer. At 3.4 x 4 x 6-foot it’s not comparable with the 17-tonne FV432 paintball tank after the jump, but I would love to have this mini-me version anyway.

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