Jun 30 2009 2:44PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (2) |
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One of the highlights of my recent visit to Taiwan actually occurred on the overseas flight back home at the trip conclusion. My seatmate was a six-year-old Asian girl named Tiffany; her mother, father and five-year-old sister were across the aisle from me. When one or both of us wasn't sleeping, we passed the time conversing on a wide variety of topics of interest to someone of her age and gender. I confess, for example, that I didn't know who the Jonas Brothers were until then ;-)

Tiffany was enthusiastic, precocious, gregarious, and (ironically, unlike her parents) quite fluent in English. She thought my MacBook Air was 'neat'. As soon the California coast came into si...Read More

Jun 29 2009 10:04PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (3) |
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A month back, when I wrote about the unveiling of the preview edition of v1.4 of the HDMI specification, I said:

Stay tuned for additional details...

I wasn't referring to v1.4 spec finalization, which occurred on June 8, thankfully well ahead of HDMI's self-imposed end-of-June deadline. What I was referring to is the release of Silicon Image's first two v1.4-supportive chips (the SiI9387 Port Processor and SiI9334 Transmitter), which happened last Monday. This wasn't, you see, the way things were originally supposed to play out, back when I was initially briefed under nondisclosure in mid-April.

My telecon at that time consist...Read More

Jun 26 2009 12:30PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (6) |
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Any of you who might be following my personal Twitter feed or Facebook page might already know, I've significantly ramped back up my mostly-trail running in recent months after several years' worth of comparative lethargy. My primary motivation, aside from the fear of an expanding waistline and the stunning summertime Sierra landscapes, are my newfound friends in the Truckee Running Club. And through their influence, I've acquired one of the most rewarding tech toys ever to come into my possession, Garmin's Forerunner 405 GPS watch:

...Read More

Jun 25 2009 5:11PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |
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It's almost Friday, which must mean it's time once again for 'and now for something(s) completely different'. And so we begin...

Long-time readers know that I spent a week in Taiwan earlier this month, as well as this same time last year. The architectural pride and joy of the country's residents is Taipei 101, the world's largest completed skyscraper (at least for the next few months). Geography buffs may be surprised to hear that such a structure was built smack-dab on top of the earthquake-prone Ring of Fire. Well, in-bet...Read More

Jun 24 2009 4:10PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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Expanding on iSuppli's recent BOM cost estimate of the iPhone 3GS, with thanks to Suzanne for the heads-up writeup, you may recall that I mentioned a week ago (speaking of the inevitability of product teardowns):

Anand had his hands on one within hours of its public unveiling, and you gotta know that folks like iFixit and phoneWreck aren't far behind.

To wit, I'll draw your attention to a few other recently published analyses of the product:

• RapidRepair was first (after Anand, that is) to get their results online, by virtue of buy