Piaggio in New York city

Here's a test from Autoblog Green of the three wheeled Piaggio motorbike that I noticed was all over Paris when I visited a few weeks back. LINK

X300 vs. MacBook Air

This is a cute quote from Esquire review of Lenovo X300 vs MBA (Barry Sonnenfeld):

The Air is the most beautiful laptop ever designed, but with a bag of drives, cables, cheaters, and extenders, it’s a little like a supermodel who requires an entourage of hair and makeup people.

LINK

Someone asked me for a list of "must have" office tools . . .

. . . so if you care:

Google for Applications
Microsoft Office (yes, true, absolutely necessary despite how good Google Apps are)
Skype
Quickbooks
Mozy.com for off-site backup
Lightweight laptop (MacBook Air, Lenovo X61, Lenovo X300 or comparable)
Big monitor at home with external keyboard and wireless mouse
Good office chair
Verizon wireless cellular modem for laptop (pricey but necessary if you rely on web applications)
Blackberry (need real keyboard, not iPhone)
Moleskine graphpaper notebook
Nice briefcase from SFBags
iPod
Noise canceling headphones
JawBone bluetooth earpiece (incomparable)
A headset for Skype, perhaps
Blackberry charger that with the right connecting cables will charge phone, bluetooth earpiece and iPod
A thumbdrive
A tiny flashlight
Slip on shoes for travel through airports
Non-metallic belt

Boy Genius channels Fake Steve and Jezebel

Have to quote this post by Boy Genius about the New Jawbone, in all its Fake Steve and Jezebel inspired glorious genius sarcasm.

Will wonders never cease? As was the buzz around town, Aliph has made their Jawbone successor official yesterday. Dubbed simply "New Jawbone", Aliph’s new bluetooth headset is available immediately from the Jawbone website and through AT&T. What is the wonder we referred to in the first sentence above? No, it’s not that the New Jawbone is 50% smaller in size than the original. No, it’s not that Jawbone now refers to its noise cancellation technology as "NoiseAssassin". The wonder is that Jawbone somehow managed to make the new model even uglier than the original. Astounding. Don’t get us wrong, the first-generation Jawbone headset was a marvel; one of the few products we’ve come across in recent history with function that matched the pre-release hype. It was just so… ugly. The new model seemingly takes its design cues from the pick up trucks typically found in the parking lot of any local dive bar. The body of the Jawbone pays homage to tacky diamond plated tonneau covers while the ear loop is apparently styled in line with after market leather seat covers, complete with contrast stitching. As a launch promotion, we definitely recommend that Aliph toss some samples out to an eager crowd on 80s night at Ultra. How cool will the middle-aged half naked mothers-of-two look when they’re rocking out to Poison with these puppies hanging from their ears? Teased hair flowing… Diamond plating sparkling… Pure magic. Ok, enough. Word on the street is that BG is preparing a Jawbone giveaway of the new model, so check for that soon!

LINK

best bluetooth headset . . . again

The New Jawbone seems to have cinched the honor again of best bluetooth headset . . . again. I haven't bought one yet but the reviews are great . . . now I just have to "lose" my current headset (which I'm pretty good at doing) and buy a new one. One review here:LINK and LINK and lots more just by doing a Web search. Here's my post on the original Jawbone: LINK

Massive Apple Endorsement

"Microsoft has screwed it so badly with Vista . . . I think you're going to increasingly see business users have to adapt to Apple . . ." LINK CNBC

Nissan Versa vs. Renault Scenic

After driving the Renault Scenic in France, I wrote about how "wowed" I was by its design, handling, fuel economy. There are no cars in the U.S. that come close in terms of performance because none (yet) have such a wonderful diesel engine.

But in terms of design, there's no reason there couldn't be a comparable car in the U.S. Unfortunately, we're lacking in that respect too. The closest we come is the Nissan Versa, a cousin of the Scenic since Renault owns Nissan. The Versa is, reputedly, built on the same or a similar platform. Indeed, the two cars have very similar. The Scenic is one inch (27mm) shorter but is both three inches (86mm) longer in its wheelbase and greater in its height. It's definitely wider but unfortunately, I don't have width stats because all I can find is a measurement for the Scenic "avec rétros extérieurs", that is with mirrors.

I sat in a Versa recently and it's amazing the difference that design can make. The small additions in wheelbase, height and width, combined with designers who are in a completely different league, make the Scenic feel like a car that's one whole size class up. You sit more vertical in the Scenic, there's much more legroom front and back, the seatbacks are thinner but more comfortable, the driving position is better, the luggage compartment is flat to the floor instead of featuring a huge lip above the bumper, there are storage pockets galore including four deep covered wells in the floor, one at each outboard seating position, there's greater visibility for front and rear passengers, etc etc. And the fit and finish is also one or more classes up.

Oh well. I do love New England. Its rural character can equal rural France in many respects. And although we don't know how to make croissants, at least our food is starting to be comparable. But we're a decade back in car design, at least for small, efficient cars.

New iPhone address sync etc

New iPhone rumors would trump Blackberry in wireless syncing.

One of the problems with BlackBerrys is that without the expense of a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, you can't do wireless syncing of contacts.

This rumor at the ZDNet AppleCore suggests that Apple may be solving that problem, even for Windows users!

• Full over-the-air syncing including calendars, contacts, and email (similar to Exchange)
• .Mac syncing on Windows

LINK

Let's hope. End of June will see iPhone 2.0

Lenovo vs Apple

This video is making the rounds and I'm late to the party, but had to post it because of my other comments on Lenovo vs the MBA (example: LINK)



Aside: amusing how the X300 ships with XP as standard rather than Vista.