Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on September 03, 2007 by CyberNet.

While this rumor may be completely unconfirmed, and the source of this rumor (Computer Symposiums) credits an anonymous tipster, it’s still interesting to speculate. Apparently Microsoft is working on a “secret operating system” which is being built with touch devices in mind.  This finger friendly operating system code-named Omnigo is said to be released sometime in 2008. Also interesting is that this would be another version of Windows that wouldn’t be based upon DOS.

When I say “touch devices,” I’m referring to Microsoft’s Surface Computer which has been a project in the making for several years now. Thus far, Microsoft’s previous operating systems have been geared towards input devices other than fingers, like a stylus or keyboard. Apple managed to come up with a “finger-friendly” operating system for the iPhone, so it makes sense that Microsoft would be working on their own OS that would suit fingers well. And perhaps this operating system would even be used for their own phone or other gadgets?

Microsoft usually has a rhyme and a reason for the code-names that they come up with, and usually it’s something pretty unique. That’s why I’m a little surprised that Microsoft would choose the name Omingo when HP already has a handheld organizer device called OmniGo. Granted, HP’s OmniGo was released back in 1995, but it still surprises me nonetheless.

If Omnigo is more than just a rumor, it’ll be interesting to see how Microsoft intends to use it, how consumers will react to it, and whether or not it’ll be as intuitive as I’m imagining it to be.

Source: Computer Symposiums [via ActiveWin]

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To commemorate the Sony Walkman‘s 30th birthday, here are the trippy ads Sony used to promote it in the ’80s. Noble monkeys, off-key kids and sweet-toothed senseis—where’s that f’d up sense of humor now, Sony?

Back in 1983, Sony declared the WM-10 Super Walkman the “world’s smallest cassette player,” and promoted it with ads that appealed to the dudes and to the ladies. There’s the fantasy hardware building demonstration, 1 minute into the following ad compilation (here if you don’t want to wade through Seth Green’s Matchbox spot and the rockin’ Simon hair-band ad):
The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

And then there’s the dancer who’d prefer a slenderer music player:

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

OK, maybe that second one appealed to anybody with a leotard fixation (which, in 1983, was pretty much everybody).

Most people in their 30s will hate me for bringing this one up: The 1986 My First Sony campaign was responsible for sticking the following song inside the heads of a generation of people who are just now able to forget it. Click at your own peril…

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Here’s one of the last cassette Walkman commercials, from 1990 or thereabouts, where a father grills his ridiculously dumb daughter on the pictures that appear on TV. She gets everything wrong—everything—but he let’s her mistaken sighting of a Walkman slide, because Walkmen (Walkmans?) are so cool.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

And about that noble monkey, his name was Choromatsu, and he died at the extremely ripe age of 29 back in 2007. Here’s his 1988 spot, in which he grips a (Japan-only?) WM-501 and contemplates nature:

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Before the zany TV commercials there were the fat-bucking-insane print ads. For instance, the small sampling below contains:
• A slick-looking posse of urbanites with nice shoes and likely heroin addictions
• A sensei sucking a lollipop while sitting next to a nipply lass 2X his height
• A lady perilously guiding a ten-speed at velocity while holding a Walkman

Special shoutout to Don the Intern for those mad researching skills. Hat tips to Pocket Calculator’s Walkman Museum, to Tim and Nick Jarman’s Walkman Central and to Bing’s image search tool. Try it out—it’s really quite different than Google’s.

Apple has taken the latest build of iPhone OS 3.1 in its gentle hands, climbed to the roof of the Cupertino campus and lofted the update to the winds, shouting “Fly, my little one! Fly!”

The beta version of the next update contains some new features, most of which will only be useful to 3GS owners. Developers at the Redmond Pie blog have played around with it and report the following tweaks:

• Video editing on iPhone 3GS won’t overwrite the clip over the original when you are editing a clip.
• iPhone will now vibrate whenever you switch to the mode where you can move and arrange icons on the iPhone home screen.
• “Fraud Protection” toggle has been added to settings under Safari.
• iPhone boot time is now faster.
• Voice Control over Bluetooth.
• New APIs to enable third party apps to access videos and edit them.

Of these the video editing change seems useful, the faster boot time useless, the vibrating alert when arranging icons frivolous, the voice control over Bluetooth an erstwhile oversite and the new APIs an investment in the future. Coming to an iTunes near you soon-ish.

iPhone 3.1 is now available to Developers for Download [Redmond Pie via the Giz]

Energizer has launched an extremely useful range of products. XPal consists of various battery/charger packs which acknowledge that the batteries in your devices suck, and then do something about it.

The packs have lithium polymer batteries and come in various sizes and capacities. You plug in your cellphone, say, and while it charges from the mains, the battery pack in the XPal is also topped up. Later, when things run down, you can get another chage away from a wall-wart.

So far, so normal. Except that Energizer also promises that, if you buy a pack and it doesn’t have the tip you need, they’ll send you one, free. And to keep the packs in use in the future, Energizer will also send you two tips a year for any new kit you might buy, free, forever. Prices run from around $20 up to $200, depending on size and power.

Also part of the range is a this USB clip charger, which allows you to throw out clunky proprietary camera battery chargers and just slip the naked cell into the claw to charge. As it’s USB powered, you’re limited to five volts output, but that could be fine in emergencies.

Product page [XPal via Oh Gizmo and Gearlog]

This is the Solar Vest. If you didn’t know that it was a solar vest, may we draw your attention to the giant, two-inch high letters on the back which spell out “SOLAR VEST”. This is, incredibly, touted on the product site:

In case your friends think this is only an ultra-fashionable vest, the words “SOLAR VEST” in big stitched lettering on the back let them know this is really a high-tech solar battery.

The vest, as you’d expect, is covered in expandable “nerd-pockets”, suitable for all kinds of devices, including the honking great charger and battery pack that comes with it. Also supplied are various tips to hook this charger up to your devices, and the pack will output 5V, 6V, 9V and 12-20V from its 8800mAh battery (roughly equivalent in storage to a nine-cell netbook battery).

It’s easy to scoff, but if you think of this as a replacement for a be-pocketed photo vest, only with added charging power, then it comes out looking a lot better, and at €100 ($140) it is actually quite a deal, considering I paid around that for just a netbook battery. Available now, possibly not washable, and with the following endorsement from the FAQ page:

Are chicks attracted to this solar vest?

Like moths to a light bulb.

Product page [Chinavasion via Geeky Gadgets. Thanks, Roland!]