THE LITTLE THINGS
As a self-defined "gadget nut" I try and stay on top of the latest and greatest doo-dads coming down the pike. It's not often that I'm surprised by new gadget round-ups found in year--end gadget reviews.
So I found myself pleasantly surprised reading NY Times tech columnist David Pogue's excellent article titled "Ten Greatest Gadget Ideas of the Year". The premise as he explains it, is simple:
"...some of the year's greatest joys weren't new products, but aspects of new products. Here and there, you could find tiny touches of brilliance: clever steps forward and new spins on old features that somehow made it through committee, past the bean counters and under the radar of marketing departments."
While several of the items discussed in his list were familiar, I realized that some of the things he was describing, were totally new to me.
For example, I was aware of the first item, "The folding memory card", and even made a mental note to get one when I first read about it in some tech magazines. As David describes it:
"After taking a few digital photos, the next step, for most people, is getting them onto the computer. That usually involves a U.S.B. cable, which is one more thing to carry and avoid misplacing.
SanDisk's better idea is to take the memory card out of the camera and stick it directly into your computer's U.S.B. port.
That's possible with the SanDisk Ultra II SD Plus card. It looks just like any other SD memory card, except that it folds on tiny hinges. When you fold it back on itself, you reveal a set of metal contacts that slide directly into the U.S.B. jack of your Mac or PC."
Neat idea. But I WASN'T familiar with a few other items on David's list. No knowledge of them, NADA, ZIP. Which was both surprising for me, and kind of fun, because I was being thrilled by the novelty of the items he brought up, just like a mainstream reader.
So for the next few days, I thought it'd be fun to highlight but ONE item each day from David's excellent list that were totally new for me.
I'll start with the SECOND item on the list for today's post, titled "THE VOICEMAIL VCR". But as you read it, you learn an interesting tidbit about a familiar device, that had TOTALLY evaded my gadget radar:
"THE VOICE MAIL VCR Voice mail is a delightful invention. But trying to remember which keys to press - for replay, skip, delete and so on - is not so delightful, especially if you have more than one voice mail system to learn. Thanks to Palm, then, for adding VCR-style buttons on the touch screen of its coming Treo 700W cellphone. You just tap Skip, Play, Delete, or whatever. The phone remembers which touch tones to play so you don't have to."
The Treo 700 is important when it comes out early next month, because it's the FIRST PALM device to run on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 platform. That should give competition to operating systems like the aging Palm and the new Symbian-based phones.
Totally VCR-style intuitive buttons are a great step to start.
Tomorrow, I'll review yet another item from David's list that was a pleasant surprise. More to come.
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