ZaneGee.com

9September2004

Honey, Did You Remember To Call The DVD Recorder?

Posted by Zane under: Technology.

Panasonic announced on Wednesday a DVD recorder that takes requests from the road. The machine has a 400GB hard disk drive, is capable of zapping video elsewhere in a home, and is designed to let consumers program recording remotely over the Internet–including via cell phones. The new product, dubbed the DMR-E500H, and related devices with smaller hard drives, are slated to be available in Japan beginning Sept. 21.

The DMR-E500H, billed as allowing for more than 700 hours of recorded video, demonstrates the growing capabilities of devices combining DVD recording with hard drives. A hybrid between traditional DVD recorders and so-called digital video recorders, such machines allow users to begin watching a show from an earlier moment in a live broadcast. These types of products are battling against a new generation of personal computers to be kings of the digital living room.

Bob O’Donnell, analyst at research firm IDC, said making programming choices may not be appealing on the small monochrome cell phone screens common in the United States. But things are different in Japan, he said. “It’s totally possible with the 2-inch, flip-phone cell-phone color screens,” he said. “In Japan, everybody has those.”

Panasonic said the DMR-E500H offers high-speed dubbing from its hard disk drive onto DVD-RAM and DVD-R discs. The machine can record a 1-hour program onto a DVD-R disc in just 56 seconds, according to Panasonic.

The product comes with an Ethernet port and a broadband receiver, Panasonic said. With the Ethernet connection, MPEG4 video and JPEG photos can be viewed on a PC in another room, the company said. Using two DMR-E500Hs, MPEG2 video on one can be accessed by the other on the local area network.

Broadband Internet access allows users to program recording through such mobile devices as cell phones and PCs while away from home, Panasonic said. Users also can transfer pictures between the DVD recorder and their mobile device, according to Panasonic.

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7September2004

Samsung To Slot A Hard Drive Into Handsets

Posted by Zane under: Technology.

The convergence of cell phones and other portable devices shuffled another step forward on Monday when Samsung launched a handset that contained a 1.5GB hard drive with a one-inch diameter.

South Korea-based Samsung has claimed that the SPH-V5400, which was launched in Japan, is the first mobile phone to include a hard drive. Owners will be able to store a wide range of different types of media on it, including digital music files and photos.

With an estimated retail price of $800, according to the IDG News Service, the SPG-V5400 is a relatively expensive way of buying storage capacity.

But as the device will be able to store over 350 MP3s recorded at 128 bits per second, it could serve as a passable substitute to an iPod, if there was also music-playing software on the phone.

The SPG-V5400 also has two LCD (liquid-crystal display) screens–a main screen of 320 pixels by 240 pixels and a secondary screen of 128 by 128.

In recent years, the technology industry has been debating whether cell phones or PDAs (personal digital assistants) would end up dominating the handheld computer sector. The battle appeared to have swung in favor of the new range of smart phones that have been hitting the market, but manufacturers have been struggling to squeeze enough memory into the handsets.

Hard-drive manufacturers are constantly competing to squeeze more capacity into the same form factor. Last month, Toshiba announced it had created a 1.8-inch drive with a capacity of 60GB. There is also a big push to create smaller drives, below the one-inch mark, at a price that’s viable for commercial launch.

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3September2004

Presidential Candidate Website Smackdown

Posted by Zane under: Technology.

If you can’t decide who to vote for President based on the issues, cast your vote for the better website. ‘It’s time to pit the Republicans against the Democrats. We’re putting the issues, military service records, and all else aside to focus on the Presidential Candidates’ websites. We’ll see how the Bush/Cheney website stacks up against the Kerry/Edwards website on issues like Homepage Size, Accessibility, Usability, Markup, and Branding & Overall Design.’

Presidential Candidate Website Smackdown
Bush/Cheney
Kerry/Edwards

P.S. - Here is a great tool for checking your website site, mine is a mere 43kb between HTML, images, and CSS.

2September2004

Segwaying Across The Country

Posted by Zane under: News.

While most people ride Segway scooters for fun or to run short errands, Josh Caldwell is on a bigger mission. He’s taking his scooter on a cross-country trip, rolling him on the longest-known trek of its kind, from Seattle to Boston.Caldwell, a web designer, left his day job behind in early August to spend almost three months driving across about 4,300 miles of the United States on the gyroscopically controlled two-wheeler. His friend Hunter Weeks, who also said “adios” to office life, joined him to capture the trip and people they meet along the way for a documentary film.

Several others are on board as well, both in person and from afar, to update photos, videos and diary entries on the trip website.

Right now, the group is in Wyoming. The going is slow. Caldwell and friends are slogging through states at a pace of about 60 miles per day, meeting people and using an extra Segway scooter donated by an Arizona college to let people they encounter take a trial spin.

“Every day brings a different experience. You never know how it’s going to turn out,” Caldwell said.

The idea for a cross-country Segway adventure originated with J. Fred Keough, a friend of Caldwell’s and Weeks’ who is helping organize the trip from Brooklyn, New York.

Keough says he came up with the plan, jokingly, while pulling staples from papers at a temp job. But while Keough might have just set the idea aside as a silly stunt, his friends were intrigued.

“They really picked up on the idea and made it happen,” Keough said.

Caldwell, along with Weeks and their friend Pat Armstrong, all in their late 20s, worked as partners at Spinning Blue, a production company in Denver, Colorado. They went ahead with the plan, according to Caldwell, because it sounded like a challenge and an adventure.

Part of the challenge has been garnering support for the venture. They’ve gotten a few small sponsorships and donations, like four sets of extra scooter batteries from Segway and maps from mapmaker DeLorme. But most of the estimated $50,000 to $60,000 trip cost is coming out of Caldwell’s, Week’s and Armstrong’s pockets.

“We had a little savings but we’re definitely relying on good old credit cards and those types of things,” Weeks said.

Still, the group is excited to be on the road, following their slow-motoring and documentary dreams.

“We’re at that point in life where we feel like we’ve got to take that big risk … not settle for sitting in cubes for the rest of our lives,” Weeks said.

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10 MPH
Spinning Blue

1September2004

Hooters Sets Its Eyes On India

Posted by Zane under: News.

With all those reports of call centers heading off to India, one U.S. brand intends to tap into the subcontinent’s growing prosperity. Hooters is exporting its controversial brand of home-grown sex appeal.The Atlanta-based restaurant chain, known more for its scantily-clad female servers than its rib-sticking menu, this week announced it signed a deal to open several Indian franchise locations, though it has not said where.

Is it time to welcome the Babes of Bangalore?

“I am looking forward to the ‘recreation’ of this dining atmosphere,” Sunil Bedi, Managing Director of franchisee H.O.I. Pvt. Ltd., said in a statement.

Hooters has drawn attention — and more than a little backlash — for its trademark outfits, generally a white tank top and hip-hugging orange shorts, more often than not worn by young, attractive, often … um, well-developed women.

“The outfits don’t change. We make some allowances for local menu,” said Mike McNeil, vice president of marketing for Hooters of America . “We might have the steak sandwich, but you might also be able to get fish and rice or curried chicken or something like that.”

The steak sandwich might not fly. Hindu diets specifically prohibit beef. McDonald’s India, for example, offers a Chicken Maharaja Mac as well as the vegetarian McAloo Tikki Burger.

Going global

Bedi and his fellow franchisees can sort that out. They’ll be in charge of hiring local waitresses (a 1997 settlement allows Hooters to keep an all-female serving staff, at least in the United States) and choose the menu, with ultimate oversight from the Atlanta headquarters. Between five and 10 Indian locations are initially planned, with the first opening next year.

Hooters’ expansion is the latest sign that U.S. businesses have awoken to the potential of the Indian middle class and its growing disposable income, said Jagdip Ahluwalia, executive director of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston.

“We’ve got Domino’s there, we’ve got McDonald’s there, we’ve got all these brands out there,” Ahluwalia said. “There is a window of opportunity that’s open. And if we don’t grab that opportunity, Europe will.”

Hooters already has a strong global presence with some 370 restaurants, including 26 overseas locations in such places as Austria, Guatemala, Singapore and Taiwan. This is its first location in South Asia, where more modest sensibilities often prevail. But it has aggressive plans for further expansion — including its first restaurant in China, due this fall, three restaurants in Thailand and elsewhere.

“We’re going to continue to fill out Latin America,” said McNeil.

Earlier this month, it also unveiled a line of Hooters potato chips (hot wing and dill pickle flavors) and announced that Las Vegas’ Hotel San Remo would reopen as the Hooters Casino Hotel.

With 25,000 employees, the privately held chain proudly defends its use of sex appeal and the role of its 15,000 Hooters girls. “To Hooters, the women’s rights movement is important,” the company’s Web site states, “because it guarantees women have the right to choose their own careers, be it a Supreme Court Justice or Hooters Girl.”

U.S. locations serve beer and wine, but no hard liquor. Beer remains a popular choice among Indian drinkers, who consume nearly 80 million cases a year.

And the skimpy attire? “Hooters is not immoral,” Ahluwalia said. “It’s a different way of marketing their product.”

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Hooters Casino Hotel