Have You Hugged Your Pleo Today?

Posted by: dgoldring on Jan 31 2008 - 392 views

No? Well, Judie has. And not only that, she has fed it, played with it, petted it, and generally treated it like a regular pet.  What is the Pleo? Well, in a word it is a baby dinosaur. A what you say? Yup. A dinosaur. No, this is not Jurassic Park, and no Judie has not suddenly hired a bunch of cloners to work over at Gear Diary. Pleo is, in fact, an extraordinarily lifelike robot. In fact, Pleo is so realistic:

[it] is how easy it is to forget that he is “just a toy”. I was on the phone the other night with him in my lap, and I found myself instinctively rubbing his back. I say instinctively because Pleo was giving me feedback based on the rubbing. He would nuzzle against me, wrap his tail against my leg, and make appropriate cooing sounds as I rubbed. If I stopped, he would make urgent sounds and head movements, letting me know that he expected the rubbing to start again. It was cute, and very easy to forget that I was rubbing a robot. I could honestly see how he would be a good pet replacement for someone who absolutely can’t have a live animal. It would be very easy to experience transference.

Head on over to Gear Diary to read Judie’s full review, and follow her journey from mechanized cat to Pleo; and all of her trials and tribulations in between.

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Some Initial Hands-On Thoughts About The MacBook Air

Posted by: danc on Jan 31 2008 - 645 views

I’m enjoying setting up the MacBook Air. (UNDERSTATEMENT)

As I am setting it up I thought I would log a few random thoughts—

-It is thinner and lighter than I had even expected.

Read more »

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AT&T Edge Down

Posted by: Brandon Steili on Jan 31 2008 - 677 views

So … you think you want the Internet on your AT&T device? Well if you’re planning on doing that today in the mid-US and you use AT&T’s EDGE network - Forget it. (EDIT: Looks like 3G is also suffering)

According to multiple posts all over the place (here’s one) the AT&T EDGE network is offline pretty much everywhere in the center of the country. Now most of the posts I’ve seen are claiming outages from Chicago to Kansas, but that’s pretty much BS because I’m in Denver and I’ve not got EDGE data either, and I’m pretty sure Salt Lake City, UT isn’t in Kansas.

I’ve called AT&T Business support a couple times already and been greeted with busy/disconnect signals when trying to speak to a customer service rep, so I can’t give any "straight from the horses mouth" info - but looks like they plan on having this fixed today, but it could be Feb. 5th before they get it working again!!!

How about you? Any issues? 

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First MacBook Airs Arriving… and I Have The Proof!

Posted by: danc on Jan 31 2008 - 484 views

Well, FedEx’s computers must have been confused because…

they just delivered my MacBook Air.

Three cheers for FedEx!!!!!!

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Anticipation…Anticipation… It’s Making Me Wait… FedEx + MacBook Air = :)

Posted by: danc on Jan 31 2008 - 413 views

That’s right, the journey from Shangai is almost over…

The MacBook Air is just a few miles away but missed the delivery cut-off for today. Yeah, I asked about stopping by to pick it up but was told “We’re very sorry sir…”

Translation– “Have some patience you five-year-old”.

So tomorrow (before 10:30 am) it is.

In the meantime my “friends” here at JAMM keep harassing me… and I’ve decided the computer-using world is divided into two camps– the “Mac converts” and the “Not-Yet-Mac-Converts” I’m dealing with a bunch of the latter.

Truth is, all the talk about compromises does have me a bit concerned. But when all is said and done I want the lightest machine running OS X Leopard possible and this is it right now.

I’m looking forward to setting it up, seeing if using bluetooth headphones overcomes the iPhone-esk headphone plug issue. Can’t wait to get MacSpeech’s Dictate Voice Recognition software. Most importantly, I’m looking forward to seeing how “Back To My Mac” works at helping to overcome some of the hard drive size limitations.

Just a few more hours…

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I’m A Mac… And I’m An Eeeeeeeeeeeepc…

Posted by: danc on Jan 31 2008 - 446 views

Asus is riding the EeePC wave big time- first we heard about upcoming 9 inch model… then units that would be shipping with Windows XP pre-installed… and now this–

The E-Monitor will be an all-in-one device similar to Apple’s iMac and Dell’s XPS One. E-Monitor will cut into the 19-21-inch market and will come with a built-in TV tuner. Pricing is set at US$499, compared to the iMac’s price of US$1,199-2,299 and the XPS One’s price of US$1,499-2,399. E-Monitor will also be based on Intel’s Shelton’08 platform and will be launched in September this year.

That’s right, the diminutive EeePC will be coming in an all-in-one unit that Asustek is already comparing to the Dell One and the iMac.

Love the pricing.

Love the built-in tv tuner (Apple, are you listening??)

But if the speed and usability are anything like the EeePC I used for a week, comparing the upcoming E-Monitor to the One or the iMac is like comparing Apples and… Oranges.

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