Heat Insulators for Laptops: LapPads

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

This was mentioned earlier in the week on Slashdot, but I thought it was interesting enough to mention here as well. A company called LapLogic has come up with some heat insulators for laptops which they call the LapPad. The idea is that they reduce heat transfer from your laptop to your lap (as much as 57 degrees, apparently).

The Gadgeteer has a review and it confirms that the LapPads actually work, though the reviewer didn’t check CPU temperatures in the test laptop. Some of the armchair quarterbacks on Slashdot expressed concerns along those lines, saying that the heat would just be reflected back into the laptop; I’ll wait for actual measurements before I make up my mind about that.

Reading over of The Gadgeteer’s forum thread on the topic, a couple other products came up. One was the CoolPad, which seems interesting at first — especially since it can swivel — but the “stackable risers” seem like one more thing to lose (the tilt can be adjusted by stacking multiple rubber widgets).

Another interesting product is the KoolSink which is really just a piece of Aluminum bent into a wedge (it cools passively through convection). The wedge is even wide enough so that the laptop can be nested inside the KoolSink for traveling (there’re pictures of this in the “bonus” section at the bottom of their details page).

With the heat that my PowerBook gives off, I can rarely make it past 45 minutes on my lap; so, I’ll be buying one of these. The LapPads look tempting, especially since they’re foldable for traveling. And, the original reviewer mentioned in the forums that she’s found a CPU temperature app and she’ll be updating the review once she completes her measurements. That may be the deciding factor in what laptop-cooling device I’ll buy.

(Some) Metal Bends Sell Out for Radio

Ashley Bischoff7 Comments

Reuters is carrying a story on decision by several metal bands to soften their own sound in an attempt to get more radio play. I just can’t understand why someone would sacrifice her or her craft for monetary gain alone. I guess some people will do anything for a buck.

Hard rockers Flaw from Louisville, who blend sensitive melodies with aggressive guitars and anguished screams, are hoping to break through on radio with “Recognize,” a song featuring clean guitars and vocal harmonies from their second album, “Endangered Species.”

“We thought that if we came out with one of our heavier songs first it might not be grabbed onto by daytime radio,” said singer Chris Voltz of the band's new strategy. “This time the first song that we gave to radio was one of the softer, more daytime-acceptable songs.” […]

If I were in the same position, I’d just make the best music I could and make my money from CD sales and concerts. And, if that didn't work out, I may try to improve the band’s sound, but I wouldn’t want to dumb it down. Oh, and do I even need to mention that Metallica is also featured in the article?

7-Up Plus

Ashley Bischoff9 Comments

Cadbury Schweppes is introducing a new beverage, 7-Up Plus. The big selling point to me is that it’s just like regular 7-Up, but with Splenda! As a bonus, it also has all kinds of vitamins in there as well:

Dr Pepper/Seven Up said the product, dubbed 7 UP PLUS, would be “a carbonated beverage fortified with calcium, vitamin C, real fruit juice and sweetened with Splenda.” […]

This new 7-Up Plus isn’t completely “full of nothing” as it has 10 calories and 3g carbs. But I can live with that — it’s close enough to nothing for me. In any case, it's one more Splenda-based soda on the market. And other than a few obscure store brands, I believe all of the Splenda-based sodas out there are from RC / Diet Rite (also a subsidiary of Cadbury Schweppes).

For what it’s worth there&Rsquo;re apparently seven flavors of Diet Rite, but I’ve only seen three of them at my local Super Target: Diet Rite Cola, Diet Rite Raspberry and Diet Rite White Grape (of which I have fridge-packs of all three in my fridge at the moment). So, while 7-Up Plus isn’t without calories, it would be the closest thing to a Splenda-based lemon/lime soda and I’m looking forward to it.

(Via CarbWire)

iPod Mini Could Play Oggs…

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

As I search for a portable audio player with Ogg support, I’ve long relied upon the VorbisHardware page in the Xiph wiki. And, though it’s updated regularly, it often lacks depth in its snippets. But, I’ve recently discovered DAPReview.com (Digital-Audio-Player Review), which redirects to AustinV.com (the DAPReview author’s primary domain).

I’m a bit surprised that I hadn’t come across it before (and, thinking about it for a moment, I'm not quite sure how I found it in the first place). In any case, it’s a bit like “Slashdot for mp3 players” — Austin links to articles such as player reviews and news of a new players.

Recently, he linked to this Gizmodo interview with Rio audio engineer Hugo Fiennes. Most interestingly, they discussed the chips in the iPod. And, according to Hugo, though the regular iPods simply don’t have the horsepower to play Oggs, the iPod minis have a newer processor and could conceivably be programmed for Ogg support:

The Rio Karma (developed here, in Cambridge UK) uses a PP5003 CPU. It plays OGG (and FLAC and MP3 and WMA). […]

The 5020 is based on the 5003, and so has the cache bug fixed. It’s capable of playing OGG with 25% or less hit on power (depending how much optimisation is done). I would suspect the 5020 will find its way into the next iPod [it's already in the iPod Mini], as it’s cheaper and integrates both the firewire MAC and the USB2 mac/phy blocks which are separate chips on the gen3. […]

An iPod with Ogg support would probably be the best of both worlds — patent-unencumbered Ogg support along with Apple’s UI expertise. But, I don't really see Apple going through the effort; after all, iPods already play MP3s and Apple wouldn’t want to shift focus from its proprietary AAC format.

Update 06/05: Monty from Xiph.org posted a comment on Slashdot about this where he asserts that iPods really do have the horsepower to play Oggs after all. Still, I don't think I’m going to hold my breath for Ogg support on iPods :-/.

Widescreen Lives!

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

Slate reports on a new trend in the video-rental industry: widescreen. I’ve watched widescreen videos and DVDs for years, but I never thought that it would catch on with the general public. I really thought that Joe Moviewatcher would remain forever oblivious to the portions of his videos that simply weren’t there.

Apparently, widescreen is now the preferred format for DVDs at Blockbuster these days. The way Slate phrases it, “the chain was conceding what cinephiles had argued for years: that widescreen was the superior way to watch a movie at home, even if it left black bars at the top and bottom of your television screen.” They mention the black bars like it’s a bad thing ;).

I gotta say that I’m completely surprised by this — I figured that Blockbuster was simply content in stocking the film industry’s lowest common denominator. All the same, I don’t think I’ll be renting from Blockbuster anytime soon; I’m boycotting them for their anticompetitive business practices.

They set up revenue sharing agreements with the major movie studios which gave Blockbuster discounts on videos and DVDs in exchange for sending a share of the profits back to the studios. Normally, I’d wouldn’t have much problem with this, but these were exclusive contracts and the smaller mom-n-pop video stores had no choice but to pay the higher prices.

Well, hold on a moment… After doing some research, it appears that Blockbuster has cancelled its revenue sharing agreements. The guy at FilmJerk (from the previous link) isn’t too pleased about this, but I see it as another pleasant surprise in Blockbuster’s favor. First this widescreen news and then the revenue sharing cancellation — perhaps I should stop by Blockbuster more often <g>.