Bill Gates, whose company, Microsoft, is one of the major investors in Intellectual Ventures, says, "I can give you fifty examples of ideas they've had where, if you take just one of them, you'd have a startup company right there." Gates has participated in a number of invention sessions, and, with other members of the Gates Foundation, meets every few months with Myhrvold to brainstorm about things like malaria or H.I.V. "Nathan sent over a hundred scientific papers beforehand," Gates said of the last such meeting. "The amount of reading was huge. But it was fantastic. There's this idea they have where you can track moving things by counting wing beats. So you could build a mosquito fence and clear an entire area. They had some ideas about super-thermoses, so you wouldn't need refrigerators for certain things. They also came up with this idea to stop hurricanes. Basically, the waves in the ocean have energy, and you use that to lower the temperature differential. I'm not saying it necessarily is going to work. But it's just an example of something where you go, Wow."

However, despite the upgrades, ol' Walt thinks Microsoft is competing with last-gen iPods rather than the current batch. He think the Zune gets blown away by the iPod touch (I would think they shouldn't be compared, as they're totally different, but what do I know) and is also outclassed by the nano and classic, which offer slimmer profiles and bigger screens (at least on the nano).

And he still likes the iTunes Music Store over the Zune Marketplace, which is certainly understandable. A music store lives and dies by its selection, and iTunes is clearly the winner here.

And while the Wi-Fi syncing is nice, it sucks up too much juice for Mossy's tastes. So his verdict, unsurprisingly, is to go with an iPod. [All Things D]

Entitled "The blogs of war: Engadget vs. Gizmodo," the one-page story recounts the origins of the two tech sites and competitiveness between us two, rightly surmising that the fight between us makes gadget blogging better overall.

While nobody's screaming, "Cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war" (Shakespeare's Julius Caesar), we do have a competitive instinct around here, and any time there's a race going on, we intend to win. But maybe it's not a zero-sum game; while some say Giz vs. Engag is a fight between the cats and the dogs, others think matching up the two sites is more like comparing apples (lower-case) to oranges. [Fortune]

It seems that NTT, the biggest fiber provider in Japan, has a lot of the same issues Verizon does here: they need to get permission from landlords to hook buildings up with fiber, and once they do they still need to convince people to sign up for it. And after all the big apartment and condo buildings are hooked up, they're stuck doing individual houses.

Overall, setting up a fiber optic network is a very expensive prospect with no real guarantees to making all that money back. Without a lot of current applications that utilize such crazy speeds, there just isn't a big enough demand to justify the expense. So why does Japan throw caution to the wind and spend all sorts of cash to set up this speedy network even though it might not be the most fiscally responsible thing to do in the world?

Well, one of the big reasons is that the Japanese government provides tax incentives for companies to do so, while our government has done basically nothing to encourage a nationwide fiber network. Despite the fact that setting up a completely new wired infrastructure is an incredibly expensive undertaking (just ask Verizon), companies in America are supposed to do it all themselves and make it profitable, something that might not make sense with this situation.

Matteo Bortesi, a technology consultant at Accenture in Tokyo, said that "the Japanese think long-term. If they think they will benefit in 100 years, they will invest for their grandkids. There's a bit of national pride we don't see in the West." I'm pretty sure there's more to it than just national pride and wanting to be first, but there's certainly something to be said for setting up a network now that we'll need in a few years. Chances are, eventually we'll have a nice, fast, cheap, nationwide fiber network that will allow us to download porn faster than we could ever have imagined before, but at the rate we're going, it's going to be a while. [New York Times]

While he thinks it's slicker than most Linux distros, downloading codecs, no built-in DVD software, hardware issues (with an iPod and Kodak camera) earn it usability knocks, with an underlying subtext nudging people toward OS X at the end. Since Mossberg is a champion of ease of use above all else, the review's not exactly surprising.

It won't have much (if any) impact in Linux or geek circles, but given his influence it could be a tipping point for people looking to leap from Windows who are tempted by Ubuntu but unsure if they have enough geek juice to run it. What are you thoughts on the review? Fair or an overly harsh judgment? [All Things D]

"

You need a speedy broadband connection (at least 3Mbps); fast-forward can be wonky; like every other distributor the scope and selection its ever-changing catalog of 5k flicks is at the mercy of Hollywood studios. Stay tuned for own review, but if you're feeling hasty you can go ahead and slap down your $399 now. [NYT]

Of course, you can't write an iPhone rivalry piece without a laundry list of phones from different makers that "copy" the iPhone's features: touchscreens (zany!), halfway decent music player integration and storage space, and "real" (or maybe not) Web browsers.

And if rewriting the same "OMG adapt to the iPhone or perish" scare story we've been reading since January wasn't enough, the piece starts wrapping up with a standard "Hey, look at Asia for a peek at the future" anecdote to end with the obligatory "the iPhone might get people to pay more for phones, which is good for everyone" blurb.

I feel like watching the NYTimes.com front page load over EDGE would've been a more productive use of my eyeballs.

Rival Manufacturers Chasing the iPhone [NYT]

Consumers want touchscreens. Consumers want more media on their mobile phones. The iPhone's making everyone risk being "left behind" (said not once, but twice). But it's good for the industry. Some executive names in the entertainment industry are tossed around.

That's all dandy, but it's all dandiness we've heard before. More importantly, what does any of it have to do with the headline? Nothing, as far as I can tell. How is Hollywood seeking ways to get into the iPhone's world? I don't know any more now than I did five minutes ago. Gee, thanks New York Times.

Hollywood Seeks Ways to Fit Its Content Into the Realm of the iPhone [NYT]

The main problem is that the iPhone can't send and receive email through the company's corporate BlackBerry email servers.

Oh and check out this subhed:

Workers Beseech Employers To Add Device, but IT Units Cite Email Incompatibility.

I do like that visual conjured by "Workers Beseech". As if they're business casual doggies begging for bacon. Quite colorful, in comparison to the rest of the story. –Brian Lam
Companies Hang Up on Apple's iPhone [WSJ]

Next year, Jet Pack International will release a model with 19 minutes of flight that runs on Jet-A fuel, however.–Brian Lam

Jet Packs Finally On Sale: How to Buy Your Rocket Belt [Pop Mechanics]

All that verbiage can be boiled down to two sticking points: the lack of tactile feedback and the fact that people will have to re-learn (in at least a limited sense) their phone's method of input.

Point one is valid. Even Mossy has his doubts about the touchscreen conquering the keyboard. Haptic feedback would go a long way in addressing those concerns—look at the love for RAZR2's haptic-feedback touchscreen.

But the more interesting point, the second one, is that the iPhone "requires users to learn the new system, a task that Apple executives acknowledge may require several days." Helio's Sky Dayton is the primary mouthpiece here, saying that

There has never been a massively successful consumer device based solely on a touch screen. "Texting" is central to an entire generation of people... There is a generation of users who are always online and who don't communicate the way their parents did. They're e-mailing; they're texting; they're I.M.-ing.

There might be other reasons to doubt the iPhone, but an iron grip on input paradigms by this mysterious "always on" generation is not one of them. If anything, we're as fickle as they come, ready to drop old habits for new toys at any given second.

All that said, some haptic feedback wouldn't help Corrected: hurt. – Matt Buchanan

P.S. I'm only hard on you NYT because I love you.

That iPhone Has a Keyboard, but It's Not Mechanical [NYT]

The fundamentally flawed logic at its heart is that the effort to make gadgets smaller, easier to use and more people-friendly is one, a move to appeal to more women (rather than, you know, everyone) and two, that women need gadgets to be that way. As our six female readers can attest to, that's total BS.

The article goes through a laundry list of recent gadget redesigns that make them more intuitive, and then pairs them with a "female-focused" logic. For instance: "wider spacing of the keys on a new Sony ultraportable computer notebook that goes on sale next week. It accommodates the longer fingernails that women tend to have." Not because, you know, it'd be easier for dudes with fat fingers as well, or simply that cramped keyboards suck for everyone.

Lighter, tighter DSLR cameras, like the Nikon D40X? 'Cause girls need to cram them into their purses, naturally. Us mens like big, bulky cams. Entry level features? Not for entry level users, no, they're "designed with women in mind because they tend to be a family's primary keeper of memories."

Yes, that's right, making technology easier to use amounts to "feminizing" it, moving it away from "products historically shaped by masculine tastes, habits and requirements." Hell, Energizer released a $20 "Easy Charger" battery charger aimed at women because apparently the $33 Dock & Go model (male-targeted) is too complicated.

Gadget makers should acknowledge that more women—and people generally speaking—are buying and using gadgets (and reading Giz) but that doesn't mean they have to dumb down devices. Everyone wants gear that's easy to use—sex has nothing to do with it. To say that women need stripped-down tech is to be just as sexist as pretending that women don't buy electronics or play games in the first place.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled boob and dick-joke posts. – Matt Buchanan

To Appeal to Women, Too, Gadgets Go Beyond 'Cute' and 'Pink' [NYT]

He checks out GMail and Yahoo's apps, but faults them for being unavailable on many of the locked-down phones that carriers sell us. He much prefers the teleflip service, which forwards email messages from preselected senders as multiple txt messages.

I see where he's coming from, since most any phone capable of txt messages can work with teleflip, but man, I definitely don't want the flood of my inbox hitting my cellphone like a rain of twittter. Especially when each email gets broken down into 4-5 emails. *Shudder*

Hey, anyone catch his new show last Friday? He's got a schedule up.– Brian Lam

How to Make Your Cellphone Act Like a BlackBerry [NYTimes]

He tests the recently announced HDR-SR7 and the JVC Everio GZ-HD7, ultimately preferring the Sony's more stabilized shot, better battery life, and more grainy but detailed low light picture. The Everio's 3 chips, one for red, green, and blue, didn't do a damn thing for visual quality.

What's cool is that both cameras can get HD content onto standard def DVDs (even though you can't play them back in most DVD players). The Sony solution works on Sony Blu-ray players and the PS3. JVC has a proprietary burner that only plays back the JVC discs in HD, for $400. Sounds like a pain in the ass.

Pogue also has a list of his favorite gadgets posted on his blog. Worth a read.

Video review of the cameras, post jump.

UPDATE: Most cameras like this require you to use their own editing software, or, if compatible, Ulead's AVCHD editing software. The Sony has a plugin that will let you use it with iMovie. Unfortunately, like we've seen before, Pogue confirms that the transformation from the camera's format to the iMovie compatible one takes about 5x the length of each clip to process. Bollocks!

The cameras are both 1080i, although Pogue let's us know that the important thing differences between two are bitrate video is recorded at, and the format. The Sony cam packs data down to half the size of the JVC, but uses a better codec, so it is actually better than half the quality.

A confusing space, indeed, for the average consumer. – Brian Lam

Your Life, in a Movie of Top Quality [NYTimes]