Out of the Box

• Lenovo’s funny spoof of the MacBook Air ad reinforces that the MBA could really use wired Ethernet. http://tinyurl.com/6zr9lv #
• Lenovo’s funny spoof of the MacBook Air ad also shows how chunky the X300 looks compared to the MBA. http://tinyurl.com/6zr9lv #
• Sharp is set to ship LCD TVs with Aminimon’s WHDI technology, which is shaping up as a differentiated approach to wireless HD video. htt … #
• Sharp is set to ship TV’s with Amimon’s WHDI technology. It’s shaping up as a differentiated wireless HD approach. http://snurl.com/26hi8 #

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I’m as keen as anyone on the goal of making music creation more approachable. If anything, Guitar Hero and Rock Band have showed the market potential of enshrouding the air guitarist in the delusion of talent. But this apparent holy grail hasn’t seemed to result in anything as effective as the kazoo.

I thought the now-discontinued Mad Waves device had potential even though it succumbed to the same Curse of CES that Moxi did. I even enjoyed Zoundz, the RFID-based interactive music toy with the funky plastic tokens that The Sharper Image offered a few years ago. That was a marginally amusing toy for less than $50, but now the ailing retailer has gone high-end with it using a “laser harp” called Beamz.

Beamz has three lasers that play different sample riffs when you break their beams using your hand or other object. The result is that you look like you’re faking primitive martial arts while you’re faking playing music, which doesn’t at all make you look like a dork. Obviously, Beamz won’t let you play real songs or compositions, just kind of jam along with samples and riffs It also hooks up to a PC to load different instrument sets for musical genres such as classical and metal..

Harmless enough, but the thing is huge, ungainly and expensive. My two favorite parts of the Popular Mechanics video review featured on The Sharper Image’s site are when reviewer Seth Porges notes that it “probably looks a lot cooler if you have a fog machine” and “if you’re just looking to fool around or impress your friends, it’s good fun” right before noting the $600 price tag. If you’re thinking this thing will impress your friends, you’ll have a lot more good fun getting new friends.

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• Microsoft’s algorithms produce a poor-man’s Dash Express. Interesting part is that Inrix spun out of Microsoft. http://tinyurl.com/5txwak #
• The height of the base of the PS3 laptop looks about the same size as the original PS2. http://tinyurl.com/5voetp #

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• Perhaps analog stations should broadcast videos about getting converter boxes 24/7 a few days before 2/0/09. http://tinyurl.com/63eb6o #
• This exemplifies what I see as the Chumby service future — infotainment for connected digital picture frames. http://tinyurl.com/6ef53l #
• I’ll be writing more about HP’s practicality in designing the Mini-Note soon. http://tinyurl.com/4zd6wn #
• Even in ‘08 on a retro-mod, Activision’s Atari games are the ones people actually want to play. http://tinyurl.com/6rm4jz #
• We’ll know tech watches are viable when women buy them. This is no smart watch but it’s the closest yet. hhttp://snurl.com/2426z #

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• New Tech on Deck column at abcnews.com posted: http://tinyurl.com/6hdo6u #
• "Multimedia" hard drives are a good faux-Apple TV option, but they need network connectivity. http://tinyurl.com/5dnyca #

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• New RCR Wireless column posted: http://tinyurl.com/3ddrdq #

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• The MacBook Air wrist rest is so close to the desk surface that it’s easy to keep your wrists ergonomicallly flat. #

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• An amusing oversight in Apple’s EUlA forbids Windows users from installing Safari, but lawyers say don’t worry.. http://snurl.com/22pw0 #
• Mozilla on iPhone Firefox: “Apple has not written a license that allows it to happen.” http://snurl.com/22pyk #
• Miozilla says that Android is a “closed platform.” http://snurl.com/22pyk #
• Using 3G phones as private hotspost seems sounds great, but how long will batteries last? Willl carriers fight it? http://snurl.com/22pz9 #
• Nice advance: new Kodak diigttal frames have a “touch border” that lets you navigate by swiping without fingerprints on the screen. #
• “Kids are the digital natives. Parents are the digital immigrants.” Will they face mandatory deportation? http://snurl.com/22r0r #
• Call me a traditionalist, but I like my digital photo frames 4:3. The switch to widescreen, though, is probably inevitable. #

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Motorola’s decision to split itself into a wireless handset company and broadband infrastructure company (after being warned) may be the right move for investors looking to tailor their portfolio, but the timing could not be worse in terms of the strategic potential of having home entertainment and mobile lifestyle technology powerhouses under one roof (not that Motorola had executed on that promise particularly well up until now).

Still, the past few years have brought us the Slingbox, which streams home video over a wireless connection, remote TiVo programming, sideloading entertainment content to cell phones, WiMAX, which promises to deliver video to advanced handsets, HotSpot@Home, which uses Wi-Fi networks to provide a fat voice and data pipe in advance of ubiquitous wireless broadband.

Even today, rumors swirled that TimeWarner and Comcast are looking to up their involvement with Sprint to help ensure the success of WiMAX, and I recently posted (and wrote at further length) about further links that Apple is exploring between its portable devices and potential future DVRs. Business models and competitive landscapes are disparate, but Motorola may soon lose a key advantage in delivering consumer’s holistic digital lifestyle solutions. Bats may fly blind, but they still need both wings.

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• From the-gadgeteer.com, the Griffin PowerDock. ‘Cause the family that ‘pods together, um, spends wads together. http://snurl.com/22lue #
• Remember fax modems? This PC peripheral would be more interesting if it came with a way to sign and re-fax documents. http://snurl.com/22lus #

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