Mikio Katayama, Sharp’s president, is a man not in the business of making weak-assed claims, touting Sharp’s upcoming e-reader as a rival for the iPad. Considering the iPad is much more than an e-reader (okay, not that much more), such a claim would seem ludicrous. But Katayama’s bold as hell. Katayama likes things extra-spicy. Likes shaking things up. But while we puzzle over Katayama’s confidence, the Sharp e-reader is still turning out to be a pretty interesting device. Out later this year, the device will employ a colour display and utilize the new XMDF file format for e-books, which allows…

There’s a hell of a lot of crappy iPhone apps. Indeed, I myself have found about four that were useful (that cost any amount of money), and even then, what qualifies as ‘useful’ is elastic – mostly, I’m just playing Lilt Line. But no one can say iCam never pulled its own weight. A Dallas man, visiting relatives in Conneticut, was alerted by the app that there was movement afoot in his home. A quick glance at his phone revealed that two men were, indeed, trying to break into his house, eventually bricking a window as he watched helplessly, hundreds of miles away. A quick call to 911 gave him a second sweet…

Sometimes, I like to think I’ll be famous for something, some day. In fact, on a good day, I firmly believe it. I pound my fist on my desk and declare knowingly that there’s nothing but sweet life ahead. I think, sometimes, we all have that feeling of invincibility. That we’ll overcome any obstacle. That we’ll be celebrated. That we’ll be seen. So, really, I don’t think Acer chairman JT Wang is entirely batsh*t for making the claim that by the time the tablet market has ‘stabilized’, Apple’s share of it will have plunged from 100% (okay, not really 100%, but not far off) to 20-30%. JT is a firm believer…

I don’t normally like talking about iPad cases. Your Techi time is precious, and I’m not about to waste it on a piece of molded plastic. With that in mind, I’ve got this great piece of molded plastic I’d like to show you. It holds your iPad, and everything. In all seriousness, though, this isn’t the wrong kind of rad. The iPort is a for real-real grown up serious dock that transforms your iPad (or iPod Touch, if you get the smaller one (or iPhone, if you get the smaller one, and are unwise)) into a wall controller for music systems or other tasks that need roboticizin’. To be honest, that’s just about the long…

Steve really hates his house – in fact, he’s been meaning to tear it down for years. Does this make him a crazy person? Don’t answer that. Steve has, however, just received word that all systems are go: the red tape preventing Jobs from bulldozing his Woodside, California home has been cleared, and at his leisure, plans for his dream ‘iHome’ (more like iPad, am I right? Right?) can commence. Reminiscin’ of the wildstyle, ’04: upon Jobs getting permission to end his home, Woodside preservationalists created a group, ‘Uphold Our Heritage’, committed to saving the residence from certain iDoom. What…

It would seem Sony is setting something of a double standard, taking an indirect dig at Apple in its latest PSP ad. Though the phone is never mentioned by name, it’s clear ‘Josh Rose’, apparently kidding himself, is bragging about having downloaded, er… ‘Game Castle’ on an iPhone (looks like tight graphics if I’ve ever seen them). The commercial goes on to essentially say that for $9.99, you could be getting far greater and more playable games than the typical iPhone fare. And guess what? It’s not wrong. The double standard of which I’m speaking, though, is the fact that, well… isn’t Sony planning…

Apple has been fighting hard against the jailbreak community for years now. Every update Apple dishes out feels like its a direct punch to the kidney to those wishing to install third-party applications to their device. Another heavyweight, Motorola,  is taking large steps to lock down their new devices as well. Efuse Chip The new Motorola Droid X which touts impressive specs such as a 1ghz processor, 4.3” high resolutions screen, an 8 MP camera, and an impressive HDMI output up to 720p. It is currently running the latest version of Android (2.1), with the understanding that when Froyo (2.2)…

To be fair, while Playboy has always been about boobs, it’s also traditionally been about a bunch of other stuff, too. I was actually surprised the first time I got my hands on a Playboy. Expecting porn like I ain’t never seen, I was instead treated to reasonably tasteful mostly-clothed spreads, and a guide to buying lingerie for your girlfriend. There were boobs, too, but certainly none of the raunchy, sweaty hotness I was expecting. Nevertheless, that won’t stop Big Steve from keeping anatomy out of his iPad. Hef himself broke the news last night, and you can certainly feel the disappointment…

The dream for many of having Flash run on their iPad or iPhone just got a little bit more real thanks to the invention of Frash, a version of Flash that runs on jailbroken iOS devices. This renewed hope doesn’t come from the unending stream of non-Apple devices comfortably running Flash with no impact on performance or battery life. No no. The tool comes courtesy of Comex, the same group responsible for the JailbreakMe.com tool released earlier this month. Cnet has a pretty good rundown of how Frash performs, but I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by stating that Frash crashes frequently, does not…

Even I have to admit that wandering around town looking for an unguarded WiFi signal blows, and I’m not about to drop the cost of a USB internet stick. My laptop cost enough on its own, thanks. Luckily, it would seem Apple’s looking into it, recently filing patents for a telephonic laptop featuring a magnetically coupled antenna. Mobile communications being what they are, this would only seem to make sense, and in terms of tech, is a great step forward. But on the other hand, as a designer, I’m left wondering. If Apple has a commitment to one thing, and one thing only, that is form factor. An Apple product…