Patently Apple reported that the US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application called "Systems and Methods for Integrating a Portable Electronic Device with a Bicycle" that was received from Apple, Inc.  According to the article, "Apple's patent is about using a new iPod or iPhone system primarily on a bike so that they could share information with other cyclists riding in a group. It could also provide feedback to cyclists regarding their performance or the performance of other cyclists with whom they are riding."

Images copied from Apple's patent application filed
on August 5, 2010. [ Source: Patently Apple ]

This is really interesting and I didn't expect Apple to have worked on any such device.  There are many iPhone apps that offer some of the features discussed in the patent application (such as iMapMyRide+, Fitnio, etc.) but no one has developed an iOS-based app that provides so much integration with bike and personal sensors as well as real-time communications capabilities.

In my opinion, this is not a device that would appeal to the pro peleton at this level of conceptual refinement.  For one thing, I think that the user interface described in the patent illustrations will be extremely difficult to operate while moving.  Implementing something that sophisticated would need a radically different input mechanism.

I want to say that voice recognition would be helpful, mainly because pro riders wear a radio headphone already. But I have no idea if Apple could implement something like that in any foreseeable iPhone hardware configuration.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I like the ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup App for the iPhone more than I expected.  Perhaps that's because the so-called reviewers in the iTunes App Store were almost universal in their condemnation of this free app.  That's not surprising, considering the fact that the app contains the option of purchasing significant additional functionality for US$ 7.99.  A lot of the reviewers consider these features, such as live game statistics, to be core to an application like this one.

This is the live game score between Honduras and Chile
on June 16. There is very little information about
matches in progress that's available in the free version
of the ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup app.

But when I looked at the app closely, I found a number of useful features available for free.  This justifies keeping it on my phone and looking at it regularly during the tournament.

The infamous part of the ESPN World Cup app is the "Get the Full World Cup Experience" dialog. This box seems to pop up everywhere when you first start using the iPhone app. The dialog box says Upgrade to get all of the live audio, in-game video highlights, play-by-play commentary, and alerts for all 64 matches Dig into detailed field visualization, watch studio analysis, and more! You can't miss it.

It's frustrating when this dialog pops up because the app's controls give no indication of what is and what is not premium content. All they needed to do was embed a padlock icon in each control that is inoperative without the $7.99 in app purchase. More after the photo montage and the jump.

Continue reading "Using The ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup App for the iPhone" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sunday night I had dinner with my good friends Ramona Morel and Mike Devivo as well as Mike's girlfriend Na'ama. We reminisced about times we had spent together over the years and remembered our friend Peter Frank who was Ramona's husband. Peter passed away in August 2003, almost seven years ago. I rode the 2004 Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope in Peter's memory.

We were talking about my trip to Zürich seven years ago to be with Peter and Ramona before Peter died, and the three of us remembered the photo I posted back then of Peter, his father Dieter, and me at the Sprüngli Chocolate Cafe in Zürich on a spring day in May 2003. The weather on that day was not unlike the weather we experienced in this area on Saturday.

I managed to find this photo using my iPhone before the conversation ended. The only place I had the photo posted online was in the original Operation Gadget post where I stated the reasons why I was riding the Tour of Hope in 2004.

The thought occurred to me a little while later that it was really pointless to maintain the infrastructure that supports Operation Gadget and my other web properties unless I use them. Using them for reference isn't truly enough for me.

I need to be writing regularly about the topics of this blog. Writing interesting articles will keep me interested and producing better quality work over time.

The only way to get back into it is to start now and write more often than I think I can. We'll see how this goes.

Every time I think of Peter, I'm reminded of a few bars of the lyrics of my school's Alma Mater:

Here's to those olden days.
Here's to those golden days.
Here's to the friends we made at Dear Old RPI.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been sitting at my desk doing real work today, watching the unfolding controversy over the iPhone Prototype purchase that Gizmodo made. The latest development (if you have been completely avoiding media today) is that the Editor of Gizmodo had his home searched by the police for some reason and a fairly substantial amount of electronic gear was taken away.

It's hard to know what police motives were for what they did. They could be considering Gizmodo's purchase of the iPhone prototype a theft. They could be looking for information leading to the arrest of the person from whom Gizmodo purchased the iPhone prototype.

A warrant-based search of a blogger's home is scary proposition. But the Gawker's handling of the case is a clear violation of several California laws. The editor of Gizmodo and his superiors should not have bought the prototype when they were informed that the device was lost. They should not have named the Apple engineer who lost the phone.

I can understand why the first offense took place. But the second offense illustrates that these people didn't care about the engineer's career in the least.

My mother often said that "two wrongs don't make a right" and this is certainly the case here. Gizmodo never should have trafficked in stolen equipment as a way to attract an audience, and the police could have pursued their investigation by other means.

Gizmodo's sneering disregard for professional conduct undermines our technology culture. The police's heavy-handed tactics make some members of the public question whether their investigation is politically motivated (in the sense that Apple is using its extreme influence in its home county).

Most names left out of this post because providing more attention for the wrong reasons is not the point.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In 1989, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association decided not to play the Boys' Ice Hockey State Tournament Final. The schools that were supposed to play, Delbarton School and St. Joseph Regional High School couldn't play because 15 students at Delbarton came down with the measles.

Everybody on both teams has wondered what might have been ever since. To the extent that people involved in New Jersey hockey have come to know this game as "The Greatest Game Never Played".

Twenty-one years later, the alumni from those teams will reunite to play the game at Mennen Arena in Morristown in what's being called the Frozen Flashback. The game will be played on Saturday, April 3, at 2:00 pm, with proceeds going to charity.

This game has caught the interest of national media. It's the subject of a Page One article in The Wall Street Journal, and an article in New York Magazine. It will be broadcast on MSG Varsity, a Cablevision network based in the New York Metropolitan Area.

I have no idea if I will be able to attend, but I'd love to go. I'd also like to see the NHL Network pick up this game. Who cares if the youngest guys in the game are 38 or 39? This kind of spirit is what hockey is all about.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Amazon.com has a one-day sale on the Flip Mino HD in black finish, $119.99 while supplies last. Amazon says that this offer is only valid on December 16, 2009.

I gave Kathleen a Flip Mino HD just like this one last Christmas and she loves it. It has allowed us to quickly and easily shoot family videos in 720p. It makes a great companion to an iMac or a MacBook, especially if you don't have an iPhone 3GS.

The Flip Mino HD has a one-hour recording capacity. Flip now has a second generation Flip MinoHD Camcorder that records up to two hours of video. This is also a great choice, but the price difference between the Flip Mino HD and the second generation would make me think twice.

This is a good gift for someone with a fast laptop. The built-in software is a pretty good video clip manager and editor, especially if you use a PC. On my Mac, I use iMovie, which gives me enough control to produce video that's not boring to our family.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My son Jimmy found a Jakks / Namco Arcade Classics Plug and Play TV Games mini-console that I picked up at Target way back in 2003. He started playing Dig Dug on it and loves it.

This is a complete shock to me because I didn't know we had left this game in the TV stand below the DVD player and VCR.

I don't think that Jimmy fully understands nuances of the games like the ability to inflate the Dig Dug monsters until they pop. But that really didn't matter. The game's simple music and graphics were entertainment for him during a day when everybody else in the family was pretty sick.

I don't know why I was so amazed at the fidelity of iPhone app versions of some of these games to the original arcade games. Looking back at this little box that I paid $24.95 for back in December 2003, it demonstrates that these games can be produced to work well on a standard definition TV. These games can certainly be reproduced on the iPhone.

The price point that Jakks Pacific and Namco put this game at six years ago also foreshadows the prices that they would end up charging for games in the iTunes App Store. Pole Position Remix at $2.99 and PAC-MAN Lite (free) are both on the apps page where I keep most of my games.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's an article in Wednesday's edition of The Wall Street Journal called Falling Prices Starting to Hit Electronics Retailers. The article speaks of "... rapidly falling prices for televisions, computers and other gadgets that are adding to the woes of recession-scarred retailers."

Apparently there's been a 26.5-percent increase in television sales, but that occurred at the same time as the average selling price of televisions fell by 23.4 percent. A category this significant can't be a loss leader for companies like Best Buy.

Perhaps more ominous is the fact that I don't see a lot of people pushing flat screens on trollies in places like BJ's Wholesale Club. If these things were flying off the shelves, you'd think that thrifty people would be buying them at their local warehouse retailer.

I looked at the TVs at my local BJ's on Sunday and I wasn't impressed. For example, I could have had a Vizio 37-inch LCD for less than $550. The problem is that it's an old model, and on-line reviews complain about standard definition program rendering as well as startup speed issues. Maybe the manufacturers think that putting an older design in a warehouse club at an attractive price will entice people to buy. If that's the strategy, it didn't entice me.

Kathleen and I may be a bit unusual in the sense that we are holding on to our money with the hope that we can find a high performance 40-inch LCD sometime around Christmas at a great price, and we are fully prepared to wait until after December 25 to make the purchase.

What I'm looking for is a 37, 40, or 42-inch LCD that does 1080p at 120Hz or higher, renders 480, 720, and 1080 well, and has lots of inputs in the back. Will we get it? Who knows?

Is anybody else holding out for another price cut? If so, how much of a price cut would make you open your wallet?

What does it mean when publications start referring to price cuts of the nature we're seeing in the LCD television market right now "deflation"? Are we supposed to infer from the use of that term that prices are continuing to fall and not enough people are buying?

Isn't a 26.5 percent increase in flat screen sales volume enough for a year of economic mayhem? Apparently not, because electronics revenues at many retailers are down in spite of the increase in TV sales.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's an article from Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer about recent accidents between cyclists and pedestrians in Philadelphia that have resulted in deaths and serious injuries to pedestrians.

At least two Philadelphia residents died last month after cyclists hit them: Tom Archie, 78, who was struck by a bicyclist going the wrong way down a street in South Philadelphia, and Andre Steed, a 40-year-old paralegal, whom police found bleeding on the ground at 16th and Locust Streets after an apparent collision with a bike.

I love to ride and I'll take almost any opportunity to defend the right of cyclists to use the road. But riding against traffic on a one way street in the busy parts of a major city and hit-and-run cycling are indefensible.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks to the Movable Type upgrade that I just performed, Operation Gadget can accept comments again.

Now all this site needs is a few timely posts....

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)