When in the name of all that is good and pure, is the United States going to completely allow this?  Now, as I’ve mentioned before, the allowance of mobile phone calls in-flight has a plethora of pro’s and more than its fair share of cons.  While it WOULD be rad to call whomever you want whenever you want while flying, it most certainly WOULD NOT be rad to hear everyone else yacking at the very same time.  Yikes.

That said, the U.K. has officially approved in-flight mobile phone calls, just not during take-off and landing, and only after the plane reaches at least 3,000 meters according to reports.  According to the Office of Communications in the U.K., “The safety of passengers is paramount and mobile systems on aircraft will only be installed when they have secured approval by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK.”  Well at least they’ve thought it out.

Apparently the calls will be routed to an on-board base station and then sent out accordingly.  So, knowing this, how much do you want a Bluetooth headset to at least not have to HOLD the phone during your long flights?  Lets just hope they pre-install soundproof curtains between every seat from now on because the thought of hearing 250 passengers talking to 250 OTHER people all at the same time in a closed-in cabin at 30,000 feet is just, well, terrifying.

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Wikipedia defines the Uncanny Valley as: “a hypothesis that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost, but not entirely, like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The “valley” in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot’s lifelikeness.”

Why am I bringing this up?  I don’t know, really just to link you to this site I found today that does more than freak me out.  Clearly I drove my car straight off the cliff and dove headfirst into the Uncanny Valley with this website visit, and I wanted you to as well.  In relation to technology, what does it all mean?  Simple really, it means we’re heading into a world where EVERYTHING is going to advance, Everything.  Already we are seeing new fuel opportunities arise, new ways of communicating, mice that fit INSIDE your computer and charge there…you name it, it’s either here, or on the way.

Head over, get properly freaked out, then head back to see how you can dip your baby toe into the future without all the “response of revulsion,” by getting your hands on one of your own aforementioned MoGo Mice.  How uncanny is your valley?  I guess time will tell.

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Lets face it, if you’re a geek like my esteemed co-writer of this blog and I are, you probably get excited anytime anyone, anywhere posts photos of their unboxing of a new product.  Right?  Tell me it’s not just me.  That said, I just so happened to stumble upon a post over at Swedish Tech Report fresh from their unboxing of their new MoGo Mouse x54!

The bottom line is, they LOVE it.  How can they not?  Here’s a snippet of what they had to say about the ol x54:

“My first thought when starting to use it was this might be alittle akward, but I was wrong I had an excellent experience with it.  The buttons on it’s very easy to use and allows an easy way to carry it with you.  Im amazed by the fact that Mogo has allowed the creation of an version that allows you to have the portability that you need and have the features that you need. “

Right on Swedish Tech Report.  Stay tuned to see what else we come up with.  I promise you won’t be disappointed!

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Just stumbled on another site this fine morning that has a pretty cool little post suggesting that all those in need of a rockin’ mouse that don’t want to have to deal with the pesky issue of “power.”

You know how it goes with most normal travel mice, they might be tiny and they might fit in your messenger bag or laptop case or briefcase, but then what inevitably happens is that you run out of juice, most often at the worst time, and most often lead to you frantically searching for batteries.  Not cool.  As all of you know by now, the MoGo Mouse line, all store inside your computer so you do not lose them, and the best part…it charges there too.  That’s right, need some juice?  Plug it in for 20 min.

Straight from their little article:

“Enter the ingenious MoGo Mouse BT, which operates wirelessly via Bluetooth and docks/recharges inside your notebook’s PC Card slot. How smart is that! Newegg.com has the MoGo Mouse BT for $29.99, plus $5.58 for shipping. That’s a pretty sweet deal, considering that most vendors sell it for around $70.” 

Man, I couldn’t agree more.  Get over, Get one.  Now.  Please.

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I really rely on my iPod (and my iTunes on my laptop) when I’m on the road. Probably another reason I’m so eagerly awaiting MoGo’s headset!

Here are some fun iPod tricks for those of you also on the go:

1) Listen to Wikipedia articles via your iPod. I recently refreshed my memory on the King Henry’s wives via Wikipedia.  There’s a service called Pediaphon that will automatically convert any Wiki article into a robotic podcast - which is actually way cooler than it sounds.

2) Catch up on NPR. My family has a strange addiction to Car Talk. You know, Click and Clack - the Tappit brothers? No? Oh, well you GOT to try them out. A lot of the shows are available only for a week after broadcast, which is a shame because Terry Gross’ interview with Gene Simmons was legendary.

3) Download YouTube to your iPod (or, even easier, use Vixy).  Although this takes longer than watching in a livestream from the site, some of these videos become as favorite as songs and are definitely worth having along to provide a well needed chuckle while on the road.

4) Catch up on your favorite blogs (like this one!).  If you have a corporate laptop and are concerned about loading it up with personal data - like the RSS feeds from the blogs you follow, never fear: there’s a way to actually bring those feeds into your video iPod.

5)  Catch up on your favorite authors or learn a new language. As much as I’m not one to endorse a commercial site, I recently got addicted to ‘Books on Tape’, by which I mean ‘AudioBooks on my iPod’ - a growing selection of which is now available at iTunes. My significant other, meanwhile, has been brushing up on his trigonometry while on the treadmill.

Either way? It’s all good.

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This is just my opinion, but…

The biggest wow at MacWorld had to be the “Air” - that new, tragically slim laptop that Apple unveiled. It could be argued that it’s the only other product out there that gives as good as the MoGo in the low-profile department.

But Air’s critics have been mounting. Primarily that it doesn’t come with a CD/DVD Drive (external one costs $99).

It was a bigger issue that Slate’s Harry McCracken came up with that has been ringing around in my head for a couple of weeks.

Now I’m going to put it in front of you.

Why is the Air a step backward from the iPhone?

No, Seriously.

The reason the iPhone (And its non-Apple cousins) blew us all off our feet was because that little device gets it.

The Future is Less Stuff that Does More.

We, the People, do not want to keep marching to the future wearing a superhero utility belt holding our 2 dozen gadgets.

This is why the MoGo rocks - because it is not only cool AND functional, but it stores in the device it augments. One fewer thing to worry about.

The plain truth is that phones and laptops (and computers and televisions) are converging. The iPhone was the standard-bearer of that reality. Internet + MP3 + Phone. That was 3 devices plucked from the utility belt and tossed in the bin, replaced by a single wicked multi-tasker.

The next tick in the evolution should not only have been a thin big dog laptop, but one that does more.  For example, when MoGo rolled out the next gen of its product, it had more functionality.

The Air should have, too. It should be touchscreen, it should have cell-hookup capabilities, it should act like -in fact - an iPhone with a whole lot more memory and display and applications. After all, this is Apple. If they don’t get it, then who will?

So, what do YOU think?

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The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has announced this week a plan to let the Bluetooth run over high-bandwidth Wi-Fi radios, in addition to the short-range, 1M to 3Mbps Bluetooth radios in use today.

What does that mean in English?

Primarily, that your Bluetooth devices will get a lot faster next year by taking advantage of the Wi-Fi technology already built into many gadgets.

MSNBC puts it pretty clearly;

Linking Bluetooth and Wi-Fi may make it easier and faster to transfer large amounts of music between computers and cell phones, or send pictures from a camera phone to a printer, or video from a camcorder to a TV.

Michael Foley, director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, said the first devices with the technology could be on the market in the middle of next year. The industry group behind Bluetooth, which has more than 10,000 member companies, plans to announce Monday that it is pursuing the technology and will make it available next year.

(…)

The combination devices will use the regular low-power Bluetooth radios to recognize each other and establish connections. If they need to transfer a large file, they will be able to turn on their Wi-Fi radios, then turn them off to save power after finishing the transfer, Foley said.

A whole new world’s a-coming, folks.

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Last year, Tyler and I got our knickers in twists over Bluejacking.

While it has become somehwt common in other countries, as Americans we likened Bluejacked messages right up there with sales calles during dinner and root canals.

And yet, it’s coming.

Bluejacking is become more and more standard in the world, and the US can only hold out so long against this sea of  messages. It’s like covering your eyes and swearing Simon Cowell doesn’t exist. He DOES. And he’s only getting more airtime.

Now the city of Stirling, one of my favorite Scottish cities, has Bluejack-enabled their train station.

Visitors to the station will be given information about the city via Bluetooth posters which activate a text message to phones.

The messages will feature information on events in the city as well as shopping offers.

The town thinks this is a grand way to “keep in touch” with its residents and let them know about sales in local shops and construction of a nearby mall.

Because THAT’S a good reason to be paying $.25 a text?

Or maybe the lads and lasses there have an inclusive plan!

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When Tyler and I were talking about the future of Bluetooth some months back, we had a good time imagining future applications of the technology. The Bluetooth Dog Walker/Pooper Scooper, the Bluetooth Mug Warmer, even the Bluetooth Calorie Counter (stick it in a Big Mac and out comes the awful truth…) were all some of the late-night ideas that took my fancy.

Something I don’t think EITHER of us even imagined is hitting the market at about $3200.

Yes, you guessed it. The Bluetooth robotic lawnmower!

I’m still deciding if this is for real, y’all. Sure, I can email my television and have it record American Idol on the fly but can we even compare that to something with the chopping power of your favorite chainsaw wandering about your yard unsupervised?

Operating on the same principles as those robotic vacuum cleaners,  this little baby does come packed with some bleeding edge features:

Through Bluetooth, the homeowner can program which days of the week and what hours of the day the LawnBott needs to come out of its charging base and cut the grass. At the end of its work cycle, the LawnBott will go back to its charging station and take a nap while it recharges, ready to come out again for the next cycle.

It will be on sale at Kyodo America.

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This should be the last post about this years amazing CES 2008!  I just found another awesome little blurb on CNBC that is basically “Matt Westover’s CES Confessional” and lets you know exactly how Matt feels about the good people at CNBC, Deutsch Inc. and everyone at the CES that helped MoGo’s ride through be so extremely exciting, and extremely smooth!

I might be an idiot, but I can’t seem to figure out how to get this little baby embedded here, so in the meantime head over here, and let the little gem load.

Enjoy!

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