Short Bits: Worst Tech, Remotes, Ed's Extender
Apple TV scored the #1 position on Yahoo’s 10 Worst Tech
Products for 2007. I’m no fan
of it, but as it appears Apple might finally
be launching movie rentals in iTunes it could get a second coming. Renting movies from the Apple TV would
defiantly add significant value, but then again so would iTunes purchases in
general from Apple TV.
Microsoft Surface and Windows Vista also were included in
the list. I can see Windows Vista as the
public perception of it is horrible, but not Surface. The author of the article seemed to be taking
Surface as a consumer product, complaining about the requirements and
price. At some point, when technology
prices drop that will be true, but Surface was introduced as a business and
public display product.
There have been a few new Media Center remotes released into
the wild that I don’t think have got any coverage. MediaGate has a silver remote
that looks like all standard Media Center remotes, but they also have a black one that has an
interesting design.
Philips has a
nice Media Center remote with a display (Via The Green Button)
for browsing your music library. It
might not be SideShow, but if music is your main goal you might want to look
into it. Of course, they also have this
one which was one of the first Vista remotes seen. I’m not sure that I’ve seen them officially
for sale in the US however.
Ed Bott got
his Linksys DMA2100 and seems pretty happy with it. “It takes about 10-12 seconds to go from a
cold start to the Media Center interface” says Bott. Is it bad when the remote is nearly as big as
the actually product?
