BYTE MARKS
Keeping up with the onslaught of gadgets
By Burt Lum
No matter what the pundits say about the tech sector, consumer electronics is booming.
New products are hitting the shelves with increasing frequency. It seems as though new models of my favorite electronic device come out in less-than-six-month cycles.
One very useful site is Gizmodo, the gadgets Weblog, at www.gizmodo.com. Gizmodo is all about hot new consumer electronics.
Peter Rojas, a technology journalist for magazines such as Wired and Red Herring, edits the blog, while Nick Denton finances the operation. I mention this because this blog is run as a business. Unlike personal blogs, which are usually labors of love, the job at hand for Rojas is to scour the online press to find and report on the newest gadgets. Each day 12 to 15 new devices are posted. It's a great place to try to keep up with the constant onslaught.
Gizmodo has been around for a little more than a year and generates fair traffic. The site, which installed new servers in June for better performance, maintains an easily navigable interface.
What's most impressive is the timeliness of the postings.
I read an article about the new Sony Vaio U101 in the November issue of Wired magazine. This tiny computer is smaller than a laptop but slightly bigger than a palm device. I'm an admitted Vaio fan. So when I saw this device, acquisition hormones started to kick in.
As it turned out, Gizmodo announced this unit back in March.
In keeping with that six-month device cycle, Sony has announced a new version of this palm computer, called the UX5, as reported in Gizmodo (www.gizmodo.com/archives/009684.php). I must find a way to get my hands on a Vaio UX5, being sold only in Japan.
Reach Burt Lum at www.brouhaha.net.
