Well, as it turns out, the hoopla hasn’t died down and it’s still tough to get one. I made an attempt the other day at the Danbury, CT Apple store since the Apple website indicated they were in stock there. Alas, it was not to be – they were out of stock when I got there. According to the employee I talked to, they get a shipment in every day. The shipment varies in size and doesn’t always arrive at the same time. There’s a line outside the store every day when they open, and they usually sell out.

This sounds to me like an artificial attempt to keep the phone scarce and to keep the attention level up. The best way to get people to want something is to make it seem difficult to get and “exclusive”. And every day, people are lined up outside the store. Free publicity!

So Plan B is to go to an AT&T store and order one there. A friend of mine did it that way – no waiting in line, they call you when the phone comes in and you go pick it up and activate it. And it only took a week or so. Hopefully, it will work out just as well for me.

At first blush, I like it a lot. It took a long time to download, mostly because it uses .NET 3.0, which I didn’t have on my XP machine (it’s a built in part of Vista though), and therefore had to be downloaded. And it also took a while to populate (it archives a weeks worth of news). But once it was done, it was smooth sailing.

I think the main reason I like it is that it’s well laid out. It has sections and columns, just like you’d expect a “real” newspaper to have. There’s a front page, which seems to correspond more or less to the print edition’s front page, and each section (Sports, Business, etc.) also has a page. Each is laid out something like a traditional newspaper – in columns, with the size and position of the headline being a visual indication of the “importance” of the story. Pictures and graphics are positioned like they would be in print as well. There’s an aesthetic there that’s somehow missing from most online news. And the display is very nice – crisp and clear. All this makes for an experience more like reading a traditional newspaper, but with the advantages of being online. Which is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I like the convenience of getting my news online, but I miss the structure and organization of a traditional newspaper, as opposed to the constant linear flow of articles that you tend to see online.

Of course, time will tell if it works well for me or not. It’s free for me, since I already subscribe to the print edition. I’m bummed that it’s not available on OS X, my primary OS at home. I’ve heard that Microsoft is working on a cross platform version of WPF (and some other parts of the .NET CLR) and that when it’s available, the Times will port the Reader. We’ll see if that ever works out. But so far, it’s great.

Filed under: Snacks, Science, On the Blogs, America

Nicole recently posted about fingerprint scanners used by school cafeterias to ensure that kids are eating healthy meals. Well, some graduate students have now used similar technology to make getting junk food easier. An engineering professor at the University of California San Diego started the ‘biometric soda machine’ project and students in his department have since outfitted a regular snack machine with thumbprint and facial recognition, as well as a bar code scanner, CR80 News reported. The goal of the project, known as SodaVision, is an easy, debit-based system where people can walk up to the machine, be recognized, choose their snack and walk away. A visit to the SodaVision site also has examples of the machine’s interface, which looks like a screen from Star Trek.

(Via Slashfood.)

It’s an interesting strategy. I’m not sure if it will make much of a difference. How many people are in a position to download a 43 min video and sit through it on their computer anyway? Heck, if the show is as bad as “Trial By Jury”, it’s a moot point.

A number of headphone options are available to improve the listening experience on portable music players. They include wireless headsets that can free you from having to deal with wires, sound-isolating earphones that form an acoustically sealed zone inside your ear canals, and noise-canceling headphones that reduce sounds in your environment. Some of the options can work with cellphones as well, allowing you to toggle between phone calls and music on the fly.

I must have misshapen ears, because I can’t get my iPod’s earbuds to stay in, especially when I’m at the gym. I’m also in the market for some cool Bluetooth headphones for work.

(Via NYT > Circuits.)

bani writes “Spammer Scott Levine was convicted of massive data theft from Acxiom Corporation. Prosecutors say his company, the now-defunct Snipermail.com, stole 1.6 billion customer records from Acxiom and sold the data. He faces a maximum of 640 years in prison under the law, though he will likely be sentenced to far less. One spammer down, several million to go?”
[Slashdot | Spammer Scott Levine Convicted]

640 years would definitely send a message. Even 1/10 of that.

It only took Apple four days to dominate the lucrative Japanese music market as the company announced on Sunday that it had already sold more than 1 million songs on the iTunes Music Store Japan. Japanese artists claimed the number one song (Def Tech) and the number one album (Ulfuls).
[Macworld]

KCRW Podcasting
KCRW wants you to have music no matter where you sit or stand or jog or drive. There are still a few obstacles in the way of being able to offer you an entire free-form music show, so in the mean time, we’re working directly with bands who are unsigned or independent to bring you their Morning Becomes Eclectic live sessions.

That’s what their newsletter says. I’m quite happy about this, but I’d be happier if they could podcast MBE in its entirety. I’d even pay a little money for it. Sounds like they’re working on it though.