jacks

A black Friday for the BlackJack II

The newest edition of the Samsung BlackJack officially will become available on that uber-shopping day, the day after Thanksgiving. Announced last month at CTIA, the Samsung BlackJack II for AT&T sports a revamped design that comes in two color schemes: black or burgundy. Improvements include a larger display and more shortcut buttons while a front jog wheel replaces the side-mounted scroll wheel. On the feature front, the BlackJack II offers everything we saw on its predecessor but adds integrated GPS and support for AT&T Video Share. Only the black version will go on sale this Friday, … Read more

Samsung BlackJack II makes official debut

Well, well, guess who decided to show its pretty little face at Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote address this morning--mmm hmm, the Samsung BlackJack II. Today, Samsung and AT&T officially introduced the successor to the BlackJack, but it won't be available till "later this year"--you guys are such a tease! A majority of the changes are on the hardware side. You now get a slightly larger 2.4-inch QVGA display (previously 2.25 inches), the scroll wheel on the right side has also been removed in favor of a front jog wheel, and … Read more

First sightings of Samsung BlackJack numero dos

Details are a little sketchy at this point, but it seems the sequel to the Samsung BlackJack is baking in the oven. The folks over at Mobile Phones Reviews and Tips (via Engadget Mobile) have some specs and images of the Samsung SGH-i617, which has actually passed FCC tests. The Windows Mobile 6 smartphone keeps a similarly sleek form factor with a full QWERTY keyboard, upgrades to a 2-megapixel camera, works on the HSDPA 850/1900 networks, and looks to be AT&T-bound. Let's just hope they've corrected the battery issues, eh? Not much else is known … Read more

Replug saves your audio devices from dreaded cord stumbles

It's not too hard to remember a time when it required two hands to get a simple plug out. Things have since changed, and many manufacturers, especially in the gaming industry, are moving toward wireless peripherals, or including breakaways to remedy consumers stumbling over cords and taking the entire machine with them. The coolest one in recent memory is Apple's MagSafe power adapter, which not only makes your Mac laptop easier to plug-in, but keeps flying laptops at a minimum.

Replug is a handy product that's done the same thing for audio jacks. It's a two-part … Read more

Jacked launching Netvibes-like platform for live TV

This weekend Jacked.com is launching the first stages of its service. The easiest way to describe it is like a souped-up Netvibes you can use as a reference while watching live television programming. The service is rolling out its features slowly, beginning with a partnership with Notre Dame and NBC Sports to serve up real-time content for Notre Dame's football season which starts on Saturday. NBC is billing the service as "Play Action." You can visit the site now, but there won't be anything on it until game day.

Jacked is linked up to what you're watching on TV, so say you're watching the game, and a player scores. Jacked's smattering of Web widgets will pull up the player's stats, photos, related news stories, a comparison chart of that play to others, etc. The idea is to save you from having to track down player, team, and historical information on your own, and serving it up automatically.

The widgets are powered by a group of underlying technologies that scan through live TV content and grab bits and pieces of information from its metadata. Combine that with things like optical character recognition, and you've got lots of information to work with. The result is an impressive array of widgets, that--when viewed during a live broadcast--will pull up information and related content seconds after it happens.… Read more

Hiring well, and keeping track

I love the Jack and Suzy Welch BusinessWeek column. This week's column on hiring well was no different. A reader asked, "How do I hire well when the volume of hiring goes up exponentially?

The answer was interesting: keep track of your and others' batting average over time, and invest hiring decisions in those who "hit best."

But it's important how you go about it:… Read more

For really fancy buccaneers, a Swarovski pirate watch

My, how times do change. Ten years ago, a respectable pirate wouldn't have been caught dead in a wristwatch adorned with a skull-and-crossbones made out of Swarovski crystals, even if he'd plundered it off the most bad-ass seagoing merchant in the West Indies. Sure, he could explain all he wanted that he'd had to use two rapiers, a cutlass, and a two-by-four to obtain it, and that the fight for the watch took place in a swamp filled with fifteen-foot-long alligators and a small but highly dangerous population of the elusive Puerto Rican Swamp Shark.

Yeah, it … Read more

News anchors break from the script

Nearly three million people have watched on You Tube as Mika Brzezinski refuses to report on the Paris Hilton story; until yesterday I was not one of those people. I had heard about the encounter and rejoiced in her defiance, but I only stumbled onto the clip after reading Taking the Lead over at the Stop Big Media blog which is published through Free Press. Actually watching the event unfold went well beyond reading about it, and I was shocked to see the rest of the news team's reaction to her actions.

Despite the way Joe Scarborough mocked his colleague for taking the initiative, Jack Cafferty at CNN's the Situation Room has followed suit. During a recent broadcast, Cafferty asked the operator of his teleprompter, "I wonder if we can get the Lindsay Lohan DUI arrest out of the teleprompter and put my script in it, is that possible?" Seconds later Cafferty concluded, "Apparently it's not."

… Read more

Apple's iPhone audio gaffes

A couple of small--but I think somewhat serious--issues regarding the audio output of the iPhone have been percolating on the Web for the last week or so. The issues involve the iPhone's headphone/headset jack and the phone's ability to output stereo sound via Bluetooth.

Let's start with the headphone jack. In Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret's iPhone review for the Wall Street Journal, they state, "The headphone jack, which supports both stereo music and phone calls, is deeply recessed, so you may need an adapter for existing headphones." Why the port would be … Read more