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SERIOUS Product Placement

We consumers may have shot ourselves in the foot with the whole skip-through-the-commercials via PVRs thing. According to a piece in Friday’s NYTimes, advertisers, nervous over loss of eyeballs, are planning on putting the commercials right inside your fave TV shows. They’re floating a test balloon on the concept over at the WB (natch). It’ll be a weekly variety show aimed at a youth audience. Ads will appear on stage with singers and sponsored products will be worked into comedy bits.

Interestingly enough, this is TV coming full circle. The Ted Mack Amateur Hour (and other variety and game shows) used to do such things at the dawn of television. But then, working in blatant product advertising into the middle of a police drama or sitcom. THAT’S new. Wonder how they’ll handle it in sci-fi? “Look Captain, we’ve just uncovered an ancient Terran artifact. According to its markings, its a ‘Midas Muffler.’ I bet early 21st century Earthlings didn’t have to pay a lot for this.”

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Prototype Solo Trek for Auction

In what has become an increasingly popular method of stirring up hype, press, and possibly “angel funding,” the first Solo Trek personal flying machine (or Exoskeleton Flying Vehicle, if you want the cool sounding acronym ” XFV”) is up for sale on eBay. Get it while you can, unless you already blew your wad buying an overpriced “Ginger.”

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Garmin Enters PDA Market

Garmin, maker of the most diverse line of Global Position System (GPS) receivers, has announced a new handheld GPS that also does double-duty as a PDA. The new device, called the iQue, runs Palm OS5 on an ARM processor (probably 175 MHz), making it compatible with most of the existing software for Palms, and ready for new programs with powerful mutimedia features. The iQue has an integrated flip-up antenna that activates the GPS, saving power when it’s down. The included software has point-to-point directions and voice guidance, as well as all the other GPS features you’d expect from a Garmin. The maps are displayed in full color on the hi-res 320×480 screen. With 32 megs of RAM and an SD slot for expansion, there’s plenty of room for apps or maps. Expected retail price is just under $600. Full specs at Garmin.

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Fan Noise

Got a noisy G4? Many Apple G4 owners complain about excessive fan noise, so much so that there’s a website dedicated to discussing and fixing the problem. Its name? Well, G4Noise, of course.

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Creative Commons Launch

Here’s an article on the O’Reilly Network reporting on the rollout party for Larry Lessig’s Creative Commons project. My favorite line:

EFF provacateur Cory Doctorow was there sporting a slimmer frame courtesy of the Atkins diet and a new EFF bumpersticker.

Wow, the EFF bumpersticker can make you lose weight? I’m gettin’ me some!

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This is Your Freedom on Drugs

Tonight on NBC Nightly News, John Seigenthaler delivered the following news item without any further information or comment. This is basically verbatim:

“For the first time ever, Americans traveling outside the country will be required to provide details of their trip which will be checked against security databases.”

What the f**k does THAT mean? What security databases? How much detail? Checked for what? And by whom?

And how can something so completely Big Brother-esque be reported with a straight face, without any more information or further reporting?

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Gadget o’ the Season

I guess when you’re a gadget geek, it’s inevitable that everybody wants to know what great gear you got for X-mas. The answer is: none. I don’t have to get gadgets for presents. People send me gadgets for free all year long, sucking up to us Street Techies in the hopes that we’ll say nice things about their stuff. But if I HAD asked for a gadget this year, it would’ve been the AeroLatte. My mother-in-law had one at her house and we all fell in love with it.

The AeroLatte couldn’t be cooler (or simpler). It’s nothing more than a battery pack/motor and a tiny circular whisk on a shaft. Stick it in milk (or juice or anything else) and it whips it up to twice the volume in seconds. It’s so cool to put the spinning whisk right below the surface of the liquid, leave it there for a few seconds, and you can literally lift the liquid up. Pour in some strong coffee and you’ve got an awesome latte with no need for steam.

AeroLatte is available in the US from Restoration Hardware for $25 (incl. the stand).

OK, I lied, I did get one gadget. My brother-in-law is a tools salesman. He gave me one of those new-fangled bright LED flashlights. It’s a pen-sized light with a bendable eye-stalk. Perfect for looking into computer cases, behind entertainment centers, etc. Really bright light.