Blog de Puree » Gadgets

iBird: The new bird-watcher’s field guide for the iPhone

paul — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:56:35 +0000

At long last! Someone finally created a bird watcher’s guide for the iPhone!

Thanks to the folks over at ibirdexplorer.com, bird watchers have their choice of a number of versions of birding guides for the iPhone and iTouch:

iBird Backyard: For common backyard birds of North America ($4.95)
iBird West: For Western birds of North America ($9.95)
iBird Midwest: For Midwestern birds of North America ($9.95)
iBird North: For Northeastern birds of North America ($9.95)
IBird South: For Southern birds of North America ($9.95)
iBird Canada: For Canadian birds ($9.95)
iBird Plus: For all birds of North America and Canada ($19.95)

Personally, I’m eyeballing the iBird North version. Imagine, the unique bird-identification system offered by ibirdexplorer.com is now in your hands while you’re in the field! I can narrow down searches by plumage color, beak shape, size and more.

Special thanks to the Birdchick blog for the heads up on this one. It was only a matter of time until the iPhone crossed paths with ornithology.

Protected: M enjoys his new mobile and hanging with Mom

paul — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:27:15 +0000

Portable camping stove uses plant matter, not noxious fuels

paul — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:34:03 +0000

I came across this cool WoodGas Camp Stove in my online travels the other day. It’s a portable stove that doesn’t need white gas, propane or other non-environmental fuels, but burns any kind of combustible organic matter you can feed it. Grass, twigs, sticks, pine cones, you name it.

The WoodGas Camp Stove is essentially a bionic stainless steel cylinder that, with the use of a fan, burns the fuel in two stages. According to the website, the fan at the bottom of the stove brings air into the burning matter to create smoke, or wood-gas. This is the first stage.

In the second stage, more air is pushed upward, along the sides of the cylinder, to burn the wood-gas from the first stage. This double combustion provides a very efficient product that needs very little wood, produces very little smoke, and cooks food quickly.

Here is a process diagram, courtesy of the product website.

I haven’t tried the stove, and can’t provide any feedback on its effectiveness. The site extolls the stove for being lightweight at two pounds, as well as small enough to be portable and convenient. The pictures on the site show that is pretty small. Small enough, for a backpack. Here’s another shot, courtesy of the website, to provide a sense of perspective.

If this stove, at this size, is as efficient as the site says, and it’s a lightweight stove that can burn most organic debris found around any campsite instead of having to pay for and carry fuel, than I’d have to say that it could be a revolutionary product in the camping industry. I’d love to get my hands on one to try it out.

Full priced phones and lousy contracts? Apple, say it ain’t so!

paul — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 02:12:03 +0000

Please say our worst fears are not true. Please say we’re not going to going to have to pay full price for the iPhone and get saddled with a 2-year contract from an average cell phone company.

According to SciFi Tech columnist Adam Frucci, Apple had the chance to revolutionize the cell phone industry, but instead it seems the company may have taken the low road. Granted, Apple is a company and its business is to make money, like all businesses. And you can’t fault it for monetizing great products like the iPod and iTunes, but at least in that model, both consumers and industry businesses found a happy middle ground and everyone was generally satisfied.

Frucci hones in on the rebate factor within the cell phone industry, where American customers get phones for free and at supposedly less than half of “official” prices and lock themselves into 2 year contracts and pay hundreds of dollars in usage charges. He then notes that Apple knew that customers would have paid full price for the iPhone–from all the hype so far–and they could have sold the phones without attaching them to any particular cell phone carrier. Instead, Apple chose to to make a partnership with AT&T, and it seems that customers like us will have to pay full price for the iPhone and get saddled with a 2-year contract.

Not only that, is it possible that Apple will start a new trend where U.S. cell phone companies start charging full price for the phones AND require 2-year contracts?

Frucci writes, “The last thing we need is for one of the most blatantly anticonsumer industries in this country to start thinking they can rip us off even more. Thanks, Apple. Somehow we expected more from you.”

Maybe I’ll buy the Treo or a BlackBerry after all.