Creative worms
I’ve had an escalation in the amount of attempted worm attacks recently, and for some reason I find the fictional. world changing news headlines a bit amusing. This one, though, is in a class of its own:
Archive for Computing & techiness
Japanese packaging reduced
Most are probably aware of how important packaging design is in Japan, and while it’s often gorgeous it can feel a little wasteful in these times. But PingMag has a How-to-Reduce-Packaging Journal up today, showing examples of things going in greener and more bio-degradable directions.
Shown above is Tofu packed in a balloon. Not only does it seem material efficient, but also easy to open since you only have to prick it to have the material shrink away and leave a perfectly round ball. I wouldn’t mind seeing Mozarella and other similar European cheeses packaged like this either.
Fallout 3 – Videos from E3
Official Fallout 3 trailer (HD and other download versions here)
I’m not usually one who slavishly follows the presentations at E3 and general pre-release coverage of games – I’m usually happy with a summary, a few screenshots and a release date. But this Fallout sequel has had me worked up a bit, half with anticipation and half with skepticism to what Bethesda would do with the rights to the concept. But after watching the new official trailer and the gameplay demo from Microsoft’s press conference below I must say anticipation is winning over doubt.
Bethesda have obviously reworked the gameplay from its original isometric, turnbased form – and I can already smell the shitstorm the usual bunch of change-fearing gamers are starting to stir up about that – but judging by the videos and images I’ve seen my opinion is that it’s all in the right directions while keeping the spirit of the series in all other areas. What a Fallout game should look like in 2008, in short. But I guess I’ll have to see about that in October.
What the flip?
I mentioned in the last post that while I gave in and bought a phone with a slider design, I still don’t get the thing with flip-phones (or clamshells or whatever you want to call the design). They aren’t that much smaller – a bit, sure, but that’s usually offset by thickness that increases the bulge in your pocket. And you need to open the phone before being able to do just about anything. With a regular candybar design all that is needed is a quick keystroke to unlock the keys. Even with the slider compromise, I only need to open the phone when texting or otherwise entering information into it. In my opinion, that small saving in size comes at a cost in usability.
As I see it, the only benefit is dramatic effect. The opening (or closing) makes a statement that you are about to make a call, or just have finished one. Maybe that’s a good function if you’re a soap opera character who needs to emphasize your anger about having found out about your husband’s mistress by snapping the phone shut, and if you’re a Jack Bauer-type agent you might want to be able to flip open your phone and spend a moment in thoughtful hesitation before making that call that will save the West Coast, the president and your family at the cost of an evil terrorist getting free…
But for anyone else? I can’t really see the point. But there seems to be something, since there’s a lot of such phones on the market. Feel free to enlighten me.
I also mentioned that when the iPhone type all-touchscreen design becomes available in all price ranges, the need should clear for foldable and otherwise compactable designs… but who knows?
Sony Ericsson S500i
So, as my old Nokia had served my for almost half a decade, I decided it was time to retire it, and what I found was the Sony Ericsson S500i in the contrasted copper color shown in the image. And besides the first one being a lemon that I had replaced due to a glitch at the top of the display glass (looked like a good entry point for pocket lint and stuff), I’m happy with it. I think the model has been around since fall, which I guess makes it close to ancient in the tech market, but that might mean it’s a good time to look for special deals on it.
It’s marketed as a “design” phone, so I’ll start from the outside by saying that I think it does in fact look nice. Not incredibly eyecatching, nor overly minimalistic but with nice clean lines, open space between the features and a bit of nice accents. Some have labeled it as feminine design – that might be true of the gold-green or purple version, but unless you’re the kind of guy who immediately gets the hot babe theme or one sporting your car/team logo, you might find one you like in the other color options which in my opinion are pretty neutral. When it comes to construction, I think it feels pretty solid for a mostly plastic design, and the action of the slider bit is good.
I have to mention that I haven’t seen much point in clamshells or any other designs including joints or covers with the size mobile phones reached around the turn of the millenium… but with larger displays and need for larger navigation keys I guess hiding the number pad is a good compromise until even the most affordable phones are chrome framed touchscreen lozenges. At least as long as I don’t have to open it to see the display or call up a number from the phone book.
The phone also comes with lighting effects – something which didn’t sound too appealing in writing, but it is quite subtle in practice. Besides a selection of pulsating effects for incoming calls, the lighting also changes color to match that of the themes (which themselves alter with time of the day and season, depending on theme). It’s an interesting attempt in combining the design of the software with the hardware, and it works well.
If there’s anything to complain about design wise it’s that the navigation keys, though not terrible, might be slightly affected by a form over function compromise. I also don’t find the right side placement of the Fastport optimal – when a headset or charger is connected the largish plug is right where I want my index finger to be and makes the set a slight bit awkward to operate with my right hand. And while a tap on the two softkeys unlocks the keys, there is no similar way to lock them again so you have to either open and close the phone or access an option in the power button menu.
So, to leave the design and go into the device, I guess I can summarize the featues as pretty decent, but not special. It connects over GSM (850/900/1800/1900) with GPRS and EDGE, and has Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and USB for more local communication. The 2 inch display has a 240×320 resolution and 262K colors, and it’s bright and clear enough that I don’t have any problem using it with the backlight turned down to 50% on most occasions. On-board memory is 12MB, and expandable with Memory Stick M2 up to 2GB. The 2Mpix fix-focus camera isn’t any wonder, but I guess it’s alright for snapshots. It has a panorama mode, digital zoom when set to VGA resolution or video, and basic white balance and effect settings. The built-in speaker is alright for speaker phone and game audio but not so much for music. To conclude the hardware overview I must say that battery life seems a bit so-so, but then I’ve been playing around with it a bit too.
Software wise, it’s pretty much what you’d expect as well. Online capabilities include browser, email with push support and an RSS reader. The audio and video players do their jobs, and then there’s the organizer and other aides as well as a pile of basic software for video and photo editing and ringtone composing and so on.
All in all, it’s a decent mid-range phone with just about everything you need in an, in my opinion, attractive package. I paid SEK1300 (About EUR140/USD210), a bit less than regular shelf price of SEK2000-2500 since it was sold with a pre-paid card and locked to the carrier I already use, and for that price I think it was a great deal.
Update: Seems there are plenty of comments on the internets complaining about the number keys breaking. While mine are still whole, I agree that they do in fact look a bit on the flimsy side.
SonyEricsson S500i product page
S500i Mysterious Green at amazon.com
S500i Mysterious Green at amazon.co.uk
(who can resist a chance for associate spam?)
Designed RFID tags
I was pointed to a post on PingMag (this time I remembered to put it on my feeds, btw) about the aesthetics of RFID tags – the little things that make identifying an object, like a buss pass or shipping container, without physical contact possible – and the creativity in the forms of the antenna bit is quite remarkable considering that it’s something that usually would be hidden inside the object it’s supposed to mark.
But then I thought that if it is cheaper to slap the tag on a visible spot, you could also use the tag as a part of the design. Maybe that’s something that’s already going on? Excuse the stereotyping, but it does seem like an innovative Japanese solution to a problem.
Saving the world… by manufacturing?
Here’s a Smithsonian interview with environmental scientist Wallade Broecker, who proposes CO2 scrubbers as the way to go when it comes to reducing global warming. If it could be put into practice, it would be a great idea.
But what if we add a bit of sci-fi to the concept, along with a splash of water? Then we’d have one neat natural resource on our hands because, as anyone with basic knoledge of chemistry might know, with carbon, hydrogen and a handful of other elements you can make a lot of stuff. Broken down into atoms, not many percent of what we eat is anything other than carbon and hydrogen. The same goes for many of the plastics that much of our stuff consists of. And a lot of construction can be done with fullerenes made out of carbon itself.
It would take some major advances in nanotechnology (which might be on the way…), but the thought of turning global warming into stuff is kind of neat. Especially if you’d end up with a magic fabricating box that anyone could own and use to tap into this resource. I believe this civilization thing we have going won’t work properly before the means of production are in the hands of the individual – but that’s an entirely different story.
Speaking of expensive: Workstations
While I’m on about expensive stuff, I might as well share this link to a round-up of workstations – not only costly but also with some intentions to being stylish, ergonomic or otherwise functional. And in one case, ridiculously geeky…
When I saw the Walkstation, I was reminded about an old thought of mine: A recumbent exercise bike with integrated with a workstation. Those recumbent bikes are among the most comfortable ways to burn some calories (I’d get one if it hadn’t been that ones with good movements costs a bit), and unlike the treadmill it would probably still be possible to focus on what you’re trying to get done. And if anyone feels like putting that idea into production, feel free to send me a sample. I have a bit of blubber to spare for a case study.
Luxury Workstations on Born Rich [via Boing Boing Gadgets]
SanDisk Sansa c240
Thought I’d make a short post about the SanDisk Sansa c240 mp3-player I got a while ago (I ordered it with the Cresyn phones I mentioned in an earlier post, but due to some supplier hiccup they couldn’t deliver it until a couple of weeks later).
The selection process was pretty straightforward – my old player suffered from a loose headphone jack and I was tired of getting batteries for it all the time, so I went to an online store that had sent me a campaign code and selected the cheapest 1GB player with rechargeable battery available at that store.
I must say it turned out quite well, as the Sansa c240 scores quite well in the value-for-money category (the 2GB c250 is even better, but I was short on cash and wanted a pair of good phones as well). Besides my main requirements of storage and rechargeability, I also got nice color display and an SD Micro slot for expanding storage. Considering the price it feels pretty well built with a releatively solid, un-flimsy feel to it even though it’s all plastic, and it doesn’t look too bad (though it has to be said that you have to be a pretty bad designer to fail with basics like black, shiny trim and blue light).
Besides the drawback of being very hard to read without the back-light the display was the greatest surprise on a device in this price range. It is large enough to display four lines of text (about 15 characters wide) plus a header while browsing, and in playback mode it shows artist, track and album while displaying play mode, track number, and battery status at the top and playback status, progress bar and track timer and the bottom. Overall, the interface works quite well, with tracks sorted by artist, album, song and genre. As I said, the display hard to read unless the backlight is on, but I think the size still makes it better than the single line monochrome LCDs found on many similarly priced players.
When it comes to the sound, I have to say it’s what I expected – nothing to complain about, but not remarkable in any way. Good enough, in short. There’s also the standard five EQ presets plus a five band custom setting. I did, at first, think that the player felt a bit weak volume wise – it was just a bit over my comfort range when I cranked it to the max with the fairly sensitive Cresyn phones. I later found out that there’s an option to set the volume control to “loud”, which can be useful for those who want to use more power-hungry phones, while the “normal” setting is useful for getting the volume right with earphones.
So, I mentioned earphones, and I guess that makes it a good time to mention those included. They don’t sound particularly bad with any kind of music I tried, but the overall impression is dull. While they are far from the worst standard phones I’ve gotten with a portable music device, they are not among the very few exceptions to the rule that a small investment of 15-25 dollars or euros will make your new device sound much better.
So, what’s left to mention? According to specifications battery life is 16 hours, and that’s enough for my use which mainly is to entertain me during the half hour it takes to get from my door to my job. I haven’t tried the voice recorder, so I can’t say anything about that. Same goes for the photo display feature (it requires the images to be converted, and I haven’t found any reason to install the software). It has two transfer modes, MTP that allows transfer of WMA DRM files, and a mass storage mode when you only need to play unencrypted mp3s or WMAs (I also think that the MicroSD expansion slot is disabled in MTP mode).
To conclude, I have to say that the SanDisk Sansa c240 fulfilled my very basic requirements, and then some, for a reasonable price. So I’ll say it’s a good low-budget choice from a company that seems to begin to take serious interest in the media player market (the Wi-Fi enabled Sansa Connect looks pretty interesting, for example) instead of just being a memory manufacturer that decided to slap some basic playback electronics on their chips to make a few buck more.
And some Amazon links, good for finding more user reviews, and making me a buck or two when buying :)
SanDisk Sansa c240 (1GB) and SanDisk Sansa c250 (2GB) at Amazon.com
SanDisk Sansa c240 (1GB) and SanDisk Sansa c250 (2GB) at Amazon.co.uk
Cresyn LMX-E630 – great value earphones
I finally got a good reason to buy a pair of new phones, and after seeing a couple of reviews pointing them out as a good value choice I decided to try the rather obscure Cresyn brand.
Lets start by trying to work out the price. I paid 245 Swedish Kronor, which is about $35 US or €27* at today’s exchange rate. The reason I mention that first is that these Cresyn phones don’t sound a bit like it – if I hadn’t known the price, I’d probably guessed it to be at least twice as much. They have that quality of… well, having been designed to really play music well, rather than just make it sound good.
One of my main problems with phones is that I listen to a very wide variety of music, ranging from mellow, acoustic stuff to the upper extremes of metal and hardcore, and I have had trouble to find something that can cope with it all. But these phones handle it all admirably well. Acoustic guitars and crisp voices come out clear but still with warmth, and at the harder end the phones keep the definition even during the most extreme blasts of sound, making the experience no more painful than the bands intended. Simply amazing, especially considering the cost I mentioned.
Another thing I’ve noticed with earphones is that they often need to be cranked up to a certain volume before they sound good, but in a silent room these Cresyns provided a good sound with the volume on my player set to 1. I’m pretty sure most eardrums are grateful of the fact that you only need enough volume to cancel out the background sound. Something that also helps in that area is the design. I suppose they are pretty standard as far as in-ear phones come, with three sizes of silicone rubber tips to ensure that they fit most ear canals, but it works well.
The cord is of the asymmetrical kind that hangs over the wearer’s neck, and the length from the short (left) phone is about 0.5 meters, plus a one meter long extension cord. This is for the black/metal version I got (also available with red “stems”) There’s also a white/silver necklace version that is held together by removable clips so it can be used as a regular cord as well. I also think the clean design looks quite nice, the straight stems might look uncomfortable but they are well out of the way thanks to the shape of the driver housings. Besides the ear tips and extension cord the package also includes a pouch made of neoprene-like material. Not really useful, but more useful than the molded plastic cases that often come with earphones since it’s large enough to also hold your average size flash memory-based music player.
To sum this up, I’ll say that Cresyn LMX-E630 delivers excellent sound at a bargain price. With an exception for bass-hungry club music freaks its rich but balanced sound will probably appeal to most kinds of listeners looking for something in a reasonable price range. After only four years since the launch of the brand Cresyn is still quite obscure, but if they keep the quality at this level they might have a bright future.
*Markets are quite different, so for comparison with some popular products the price is about twice that of a pair of Koss The Plug at the webshop where I bought my phones, and a third less than the iPod in-ear phones at Apple’s Swedish online store.
