End User

MIT Makes Post-it Notes Sexy

We all know that Post-it notes are the sexy office supply.  (What do you mean, they aren't?  Pshaw.) No other office supply (not counting Sharpies, of course) can come close to their raw uninhibited utilitarian passion. If you've got it then flaunt it--some guys have even been known to use the power of Post-it colored cars to attract the opposite sex. Uh, well....sort of.

Even though it's hard to imagine adding more potency to the already turbo charged parade of Post-it passion Pranav and Pattie over at MIT have ventured close to the edge of Post-it potential by embedding RIFD and handwriting technology and evolving them into what they, aptly, call "Quickies". See, even MIT knows about the sex appeal of the Post-it!

Okay, enough kidding around--but this use of RFID is actually pretty cool.  Imagine writing a number down on a Post-it and having it instantly load into your phone's contact list. Or how about book marking a passage in a book, and a few weeks later use search for that note on your laptop's Quickie UI? There's a long list of ways this could make sharing data between the physical world and the digital world seamless, but until a manufacturer takes this idea and unleashes it - and when they do I personally promise Amazon.com/OfficeSupplies will sell it - we'll just have to sit back and dream about Quickies.

--Creighton

 

 

Small Fox Discovered While on Safari

As of last week thoughts of a small African fox, the Fennec, make me giddy. The fine folks at Mozilla (the brains behind Firefox, of course) have started work on a mobile browser - finally! The announcement last week, for Firefox Jr. aka Fennec, is great news as pretty much the only real mobile browser success so far as been with iPhone Safari users. Windows Mobile, we were an arranged marriage anyways, so no love lost there. Sorry, Opera it's just not working out, let's just be friends. Hello Fennec! Hearing common sense thoughts from the Mozilla camp like, "With most mobile browsers, basic activities like URL entry, bookmarking and search are too hard to use. These need attention, and "awesome-bar" like innovation. An equivalent to multiple windows/tabs is needed." makes me think that they might be the ones with enough open source momentum to finally bring a decent mobile browser to the masses.

--Creighton

Pry These 3 Gadgets from My Cold Dead Hands

What I like about electronics these days is the unflinching optimism. Everything that's right around the corner will change your life...pre-order now. Some will (Android OS) some won't (Music Gremlin). As I understand it, this time next month I'll be using a solar recharged UMPC on a ad free municipal Wi-Max network Twittering about why my jet pack is in the shop. So for this week, right before I hand back over my paycheck to Amazon for the next endorphin rush of new gear here's a list of the top gadgets under my roof that you'll have to pry from my cold dead hands. Ok, a bit morbid, but you get the point.

1. The Eye-Fi 2 GB Wi-Fi memory card. Once you try it you buy it. It does exactly what it promises it'll do with no hassle. No more hunting for a USB cable to upload pics, I'm a lazy man at heart so my emancipation from one more thing is here. I just walk into my house, it sniffs out my network, and uploads the day's pics to my computer and even to Picassa (or Shutterfly, or Flikr, etc).


2. Believe it or not the Logitech MX Revolution mouse is another must have. It's just not right to cheap out on something you use all the time, and seeing as you're online right now reading this right now, I bet you're online just as much as I am. Here's a little inside scoop too...Amazon's has the refurbished version of the MX Revolution for super cheap. The weighted scroll wheel just makes my day when I need to navigate a monstrous web page. That and once you go cordless you never go back.
   
   


3. The final one is tricky, because the Garmin Zumo 550 GPS is a bit deceptive. It's not just a motorcycle GPS. Right there in the box is the automotive mount, so don't let it talk you into thinking it's hardcore and should live its life only on your handlebars. It rides along with me on the motorcycle just as well as it rides in the wife's Subaru. But wait! There's more! Drop a little more cash on the optional XM radio subscription and it's a satellite radio, with handy real time weather too.

What else is out there, aside from these 3 gotta have gadgets that are about to infiltrate my day-today existence? These 3, definitely, are the ones I'd miss if they disappeared on me. Now let me get back to seeing if I can justify  getting a Logitech Squeezebox Duet as I'm all excited about it and I think it's a front runner to make my list next year.

--Creighton