This goes out to all of those who proclaimed doom and gloom when IBM announced that they were selling off their Thinkpad laptop division. The FCC has posted pictures and information on the new Thinkpad X41 Tablet PC. In true IBM fashion it looks like you’d expect a Thinkpad to look, except for the 180 degree swivel screen of course. The unit is fully connected boasting Bluetooth and a dual antenna WiFi for all of your data transmission needs.
Archive for April, 2005
At the Raleigh Flickr Group meeting last night, in conversation I found myself in need of a term that would describe an individual that I am connected to through the blogsphere. As I searched for a word, Smythe said it just as I had began to form it: “Blogtact”, a combination of “blog” and “contact”. Now first of all, I’d like to put that term up here, as these posts are time-stamped, to make record of it in case the term catches on.
Is this a term people have used before? I believe it is incredibly apt for describing what it describes, and may come in useful quite frequently considering our current situation regarding the flow of information on the internet. Is the term flawed? If you have any thoughts, please leave a comment. And beyond all else, please feel free to use our new term at will!
It’s almost common knowledge now that Microsoft has built their Xbox 360 (Xbox2) development kits inside Apple’s Powermac G5 tower. This is because (if memory serves me correctly) the next Xbox will actually use a PowerPC processor, developed and built by IBM. TeamXbox posted a story this morning featuring a picture of the Xbox 360 development kit that was posted at Macned, a European Mac enthusiast website.
I guess an obvious point of irony here is that Microsoft’s development kit is visually nothing more than an Apple G5 tower with some metallic Microsoft stickers on it. The rumored specs of the kit are a dual G5 CPU setup with 512meg of RAM and an ATI X800 GPU. The detail I get the most chuckles from, however, is the name of the kit. Microsoft calls this the “Xenon” development kit. As you may know, Intel builds the Xenon line of CPUs. Was this Microsoft Game Studios making a stab at Intel for losing a bid to produce the next Xbox’s CPU? I’m not sure, and I’m merely posing speculation. However, I can’t think of a single item that holds more irony in the world of tech.
A Microsoft Branded Apple G5, which is a PowerPC architecture machine, named Xenon.
I guess I’m a sucker for edgy advertising. I clicked on a provocative ad on an Engadget page asking about information on a stolen Audi A3. The ad points to this page which links to a couple of interesting sites…
The two sites play off of each other, and are supposed to represent the two sides of the hunt for this stolen car. It looks like Audi wants people to hack the sites and other information to join in on the story. Here’s how Audi describes it:
Congratulations! You’ve discovered a fun, interactive, fictional story sponsored by Audi. This campaign is similar to what’s known as “Alternate Reality Gaming,” in which a community of users become a part of the story, interact with its characters, and help each other unravel its mysteries along the way. If you’d like to immerse yourself in this entertaining, challenging experience, you can check out the “In A Nutshell” links on the right for a summary of the story so far…then be sure to visit the discussion forum and join in the fun! (And don’t worry, nobody will call you at 3:00 a.m. — it’s not that immersive.)
http://www.stolena3.com/archives/001176.html
I like seeing big companies use alternate forms of advertising, and I’m sure this promotion will certainly generate some ‘buzz’ around the new A3. Many people will see this and instantly think of I Love Bees.
(Yeah, so I’m giving Audi free advertising space here… Maybe in the spirit of things they’ll go ahead and give me a new A3 to compensate me…)
I’m taking a break from the paper I’m working on to do a quick post here. To the right you’ll see a pie chart. That’s the browser usage for users that have visited Ocell.blog in the past few days. I like what I see! Let’s see Safari overtake IE next!