Celebrate your 232nd year of independence you Americans you! It’s clear that in terms of gadgets, the US is king.

It’s all about American Gadgets, Folks

Everyone talks about American gadgets like the iPhone (notable exceptions include Nokia and Korean manufacturers like Samsung, and you can see them try their best to appeal to the American market). The top 5 trafficked websites according to Alexa (Google, Windows Live, Facebook, Wikipedia, and Gmail) were all created by Americans (and some would say for Americans). A similarity among high-profile gadget celebrities, such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and even Walt Mossberg, is their American blood.

You can of course argue that the rest of the world is catching up, or already has. Forget Japan, let’s look at connected powerhouses like Korea and of course China. But when you limit the scope to the English language, it’s clear that the most prominent stuff continue to be American.

Let’s realize for a moment that the ICANN, a non-profit organization dedicated to making sure everyone on the Internet can find each other, is based in the US. Let’s also remember that the art of tech-reporting was created and refined in the US. Don’t believe me? Guess where websites like Engadget, Gizmodo, and The Gadget Blog are based? I also bet that tech-savvy people from other countries are quite envious of how easy it is for Americans to turn their tech ideas into paper wealth.

American Standards

And what about the standards that help gadgets interact with each other?

• USB: “The USB 1.0 specification was introduced in November 1995. USB was promoted by Intel (UHCI and open software stack), Microsoft (Windows software stack), Philips (Hub, USB-Audio), and US Robotics.”
• VGA: “The term Video Graphics Array (VGA) refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987″
• WiFi: “The precursor to Wi-Fi was invented in 1991 by NCR Corporation/AT&T (later Lucent & Agere Systems)” [in the Netherlands, but still under the management of an American entity

Of course, you’ve got GSM, a European cellular standard, trumping America’s CDMA. But again, can you tell me which GSM phone currently gets a lot of media mileage? (answer: the iPhone)

I apologize if I’m coming off as a jingoist. But my point is still clear: in the world of gadgets, America rules. And that’s something Americans should celebrate as part of their independence.

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Ok, I understand some people need to take cameras underwater, and I’m pretty sure waterproof flashlights would be really useful. But then again, why would you need a waterproof flash drive (it can be securely wrapped in plastic for a trip), waterproof speakers, and a waterproof monitor?

I really don’t see any practical use for some of the gadgets recently featured by PC Magazine as “Water-Friendly.” Sure, it’s probably pretty novel to look at pictures while under the water, but would it really be useful? Would any of us be able to maximize using gadgets in wet or submerged environments?

PC Magazine: 10 Water-Friendly Gadgets

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The idea is simple apparently: use an airship, take advantage of its spaciousness (compared with aircraft) and turn it into a pretty well-stocked humanitarian platform.

Instead of flying to a major airport at a huge city where supplies would have to be loaded onto trucks or helicopters to carry disaster relief, airship can fly directly to any location on earth and deliver humanitarian aid quickly to the exact place it is needed. Airships can deliver help to the most remote locations, even if roads are destroyed as in an earthquake, or flooding.

Are Airships Still a Danger?

Ever since the Hindenburg caused Herbert Morrison to exclaim “Oh, the humanity!“, people have been wary about airships. But the combustible hydrogen that helped the German airship burn so swiftly is no longer vogue in the airship world. People have long realized that Helium provides the same air buoyancy, without the flammability.

Yet the criticisms of airships remain. While they provide more cargo carrying capacity, they are slow (and supposedly require more fuel to move around at a decent speed). Still, if they have the ability to carry so much to help so many people, shouldn’t this initiative be given some consideration?

Source: environmentalgraffiti.com

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Who would’ve thought Star Trek doesn’t have the monopoly on technobabble? Watch this poor marketer try to understand engineers spouting endless technical jargon:

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Datexx knows there are lots of hand-cranked chargers out there, so they’ve thrown in “4 cell phones tips” (Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Kyocera, and LG says the Amazon product page, but that’s five!) and “a USB adaptor” to sweeten the deal.

The manufacturer says that this cranky powerhouse promises enough juice to let you yap on your cell phone for 4 hours, keep it on for 36, and 5 for iPods. 2 minutes of hand action will provide 6 of talking.

For those who own hand-cranked chargers, how well have they served you? Are they really useful, or just a gimmick of the gadget world?

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Current games like Age of Conan and Mass Effect already give high-end PCs a tough time, and it looks like upcoming games like Diablo 3 and Red Alert 3 will be even more demanding. The screenshots are probably making my current gaming rig pee in its pants.

For some reason, I’m thinking now is the perfect time for avid gamers to upgrade their PCs—or even invest in a new one. The second option is more affordable than it sounds, thanks to great resources like Tom’s Hardware.

On the opposite extreme, those who have the cash to spend should really get the best the money can buy—again, if they’re really into gaming. As a rule I always try to select/build a system that lasts for at least two years. At the same time however, not all of us can afford to spend $3000+ “just” on gaming.

According to my limited experience in choosing the right gaming setup, right between top-of-the-line and budget, here’s what I would get:

• A 3Ghz processor
• 4GB of RAM
• A video card with at least 1GB of memory
• 500GB of hard disk space
• DVD-Writer
• A 22″ LCD monitor

Feel free to criticize my arbitrary selection and lack of detail. So long as you provide a more detailed setup in the comments below.

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I have my personal thoughts on Blu-ray, mostly concerning its viability as a successor to DVD for pre-recorded movies, especially in the face of downloads, but there’s one area where a big optical disc is still useful: backing up large chunks of data.

MCE Technologies’ new Mac specific Blu-ray burner takes care of this. Gone is the need for specific software. The Blu-ray SuperDrive behaves just like any other optical drive. Slide it into your Apple Mac Pro and you can drag, drop and burn files right from the Finder.

The 6x speed in the title refers to authoring one 25GB layer. For dual layer burning, you’ll get just 4x, and there’s a twist. The drive can also read and write CD’s and DVD’s, and burn logos into the discs with LightScribe.

The MCE 6X Blu-ray Recordable Drive plus one free 25 GB Blu-ray disc is priced at $499.00 USD.

You can also get a bundle with Roxio Toast 9 and the HD/BD plug-in which is priced at 599.00 USD.

Tags: apple, Media, Technology

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Perhaps the real question is: how often do Macs crash compared to Personal computers? Source: ericstoller.com.

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AT&T finally came out with their planned iPhone 3G plan prices, exposing Steve Job’s $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB variant prices as borderline duplicituous.

Those figures are only available to AT&T customers who are “upgrade eligible” (find out if you are here). Buyers who don’t meet the criteria will have to pay extra for the “early upgrade”; $399 for the 8GB version, or $499 for the 16GB iPhone. Either setup locks you into a two-year contract with AT&T.

Surprisingly, AT&T has also announced the future availability of a no-contract iPhone 3G. The 8GB variant will cost $499, while the 16GB version will set you back $599.

In any case, buyers are required to have their new iPhone activated in-store. Customers will need a pic ID and their social security number for the credit check. If you’re really interested in getting the iPhone 3G once it’s out at 8AM Eastern on July 11, AT&T has helpfully provided a comprehensiveonline brochure to help you out.

Even if buying an iPhone 3G will apparently be more complicated—a procedure no doubt meant to counter bulk buyers who plan to unlock and sell those cheap $199 phones—I’m pretty sure Apple and AT&T stores will be full come launch day.

Tags: Activating the iPhone 3G, buying the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G activation, iPhone 3G plans, iPhone 3G prices

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You can be sure that a lot of people will be writing about how Intel “backstabbed” Microsoft by refusing to upgrade its workstations to Vista, but here’s my take on this development.

Imagine using a pretty powerful XPS M1330, only to find that, thanks to Vista, thing are still slow. I’d understand if it takes forever to render a computer animation, or to compute the value of pi to the 3,000th decimal point, but taking a minute to start up and shut down? C’mon!

To Vista’s credit though, there are some decent improvements in functionality. The search, which mimics Mac OS X’s spotlight, is much faster for instance. Windows staples like Control Panel are also much easier to navigate, and Vista’s graphics are much more welcome than XP’s “Fisher Price” look.

But please, if you come out with a “next-generation” OS that makes it tough even for top-of-the-line machines, you can expect everyone to complain. Even if Microsoft allegedly formulated Vista to boost Intel’s bottom line (by forcing consumers to upgrade their hardware like processors), I can’t expect Intel to support an OS that represents a step backward for Microsoft.

To anyone who also uses Vista and shares my pain, I recommend downloading Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (434.5 MB). It may not fix everything that’s wrong with Vista, but it does make the experience a bit more bearable.

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