The Gadget File

Some fun stuff from the what’s next pile:

• iFlicks – Yes, it’s semi-official. By the end of the year Apple will be offering movies for iPods through iTunes. Having sold a billion audio tracks already, I’m sure everyone will be eager to see how many movies Apple can move. I don’t anticipate it will be nearly as many as songs, but at a rumored $9.99 each it should add up.


• Here’s a thought: maybe this is the reason for the delay on the next generation iPod. Perhaps apples next entry will actually have a screen worth watching movies on and they wanted to make sure they would be able to do it right and work with any encryption the studios demanded. Imagine a full featured iPod plus a nice screen and some ports so you can hook it to a TV. Now imagine bags of money in Apples bank account…


• The Onyx Prototype phone – it’s been turning heads on the internet, although I’m not sure why. Yes it’s a neat concept phone with no buttons. But I’m not sure why it would work better than a palm pilot approach. Still, the company (synaptics) has a record of making good products with Apple, so of course everyone is speculating. Personally I file this under “maybe”.


• UV Breadbox – what would a techno-gadget entry be without something crazy off the internet? Behold the ultraviolet breadbox. Purely a build-it-yourself device, this unproven gadget could, in principle, kill organisms before they make your bread moldy. Bread does mold from the outside, so who knows, it just might work. Let me know if you build one.

Fun stuff for Tuesday,

FW